How many inquiries are considered too many?

[RW771]

ok, I know this is an open ended question and probably varies with each CC company, but is there an average number that's considered too many? I have about 3-5 depending on which CB you look at (I bought a house in Dec. and 2 are inq's from the bank) and the other inquiries are a dept. store card I received in Dec. after buying my house and when I had the alarm system with ADT activated in my home, they pulled my credit without telling me they were going to.

Anyway, I'm going to my CU this afternoon to apply for a card and worry I may not get the limit I'm hoping for. If I don't, I'm wanting to apply for another prime card (unsure just what yet) but worry that I may already have too many inquiries? I've seen where some people have many many more and still get approved, and then I see where companies like Amex are very picky on the number of inquiries a person has.

[pizzadude]

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@RW771 wrote:

ok, I know this is an open ended question and probably varies with each CC company, but is there an average number that's considered too many? I have about 3-5 depending on which CB you look at (I bought a house in Dec. and 2 are inq's from the bank) and the other inquiries are a dept. store card I received in Dec. after buying my house and when I had the alarm system with ADT activated in my home, they pulled my credit without telling me they were going to.

Anyway, I'm going to my CU this afternoon to apply for a card and worry I may not get the limit I'm hoping for. If I don't, I'm wanting to apply for another prime card (unsure just what yet) but worry that I may already have too many inquiries? I've seen where some people have many many more and still get approved, and then I see where companies like Amex are very picky on the number of inquiries a person has.

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You are correct that it varies by company and there's no single answer to this question.    And even with a particular creditor ( like AMEX ) the answer will vary depending on other factors on your CRs.  

But if you only have 5 or less now I think that you will probably be ok ~ but again YMMV.

[trumpet-205]

It varies, but try to keep it below 5 INQs.

I have 10 INQs on my EQ, 7 of them are from various bank/CU when I opened deposit accounts.

[KeithW]

I would say that 3-5 is pretty good. I have 14 on mine. When we bought our last car they had 5 pulls while shopping around. Chase auto finance has also done 4 hard pulls in the past 2 years for some reason.

[Eschaton]

That's something I was wondering about too. I was denied by Amex for multiple reasons, one being too many inquiries (1 that was over a year old) and chase for 2 inquiries. But I've seen others with 10+, 20+ and even 60 inquiries get approved. So that leads me to believe it is just a superficial number that they set. Or just a generic denial reason with no real backing. It might also depends on on how your current situation is, like of your account age.

So I don't really know how it factors in, but I think it has minimal effect. I try not to getmore than 5 inquiries every 2 rolling year.

[RW771]

Thanks for the replies!

Keith, since 2 of them are from the same bank and only a month apart (for getting approved for my mortgage loan and again before I closed) I hope that they'll count that as 1 and not 2. I assumed they did that with auto inquiries too? I'm going to dispue the 1 inquiry that wasn't authorized by ADT so in reality, I should only have 3, but guess you have to go with what is physically on your CR's

[LS2982]

I was approved with AMEX with 14 INQ's. I think it has MUCH to do with whats on your files rather than INQ's.

[frogfan12]

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@RW771 wrote:

ok, I know this is an open ended question and probably varies with each CC company, but is there an average number that's considered too many? I have about 3-5 depending on which CB you look at (I bought a house in Dec. and 2 are inq's from the bank) and the other inquiries are a dept. store card I received in Dec. after buying my house and when I had the alarm system with ADT activated in my home, they pulled my credit without telling me they were going to.

Anyway, I'm going to my CU this afternoon to apply for a card and worry I may not get the limit I'm hoping for. If I don't, I'm wanting to apply for another prime card (unsure just what yet) but worry that I may already have too many inquiries? I've seen where some people have many many more and still get approved, and then I see where companies like Amex are very picky on the number of inquiries a person has.

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I don't appreciate ADT pulling my CR either. Or AT&T. Half of my inquiries are from moving to my new home towards the end of last year. What's up with that?

[halos24]

I could not agree more! ADT pulled my CU 3x in October I am currently disputing it. I justified this with my recent app with Nordstrom, and they clearly saw it was for utilities.

[frogfan12]

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@halos24 wrote:
I could not agree more! ADT pulled my CU 3x in October I am currently disputing it. I justified this with my recent app with Nordstrom, and they clearly saw it was for utilities.

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Wow, that's waaay too many times. I'll be glad when my inquiries fall off from renting my apartment in 2010. Next year all of my '11 apps from moving into my new home will fall off. Oh well, time heals all wounds.