@Anonymous wrote:... I have seen a few posts talking about inquiry sensitivity when I was doing some research and I wanted to chime in. Common advice has been if you have more than 8-10 inquiries don't apply for cards like discover/Amex....etc. or even other credit in general. I wanted to say this really is a false narrative. Some banks like chase/boa/citi definitely are inquiry sensitive and I wouldn't recommend going that route but honestly I have never really had any questions come up regarding inquiries and at one point I had 40+ at one time.
An example is with chase bank, at the time of approval for their freedom flex I had a 648 credit score and maybe 15-20 inquiries as I was shopping for credit to improve my score and I was approved. Later I recently approved for an increase from $1.5k to $5k and had 30 accounts though that took a bit of explaining to the credit analyst, it really wasn't mentioned as an issue.
In between that time my scores rose to high 600s to low 700s and I approved for discover, Amazon Visa Signature Prime Card, Discover, Chase CLI, Verizon Card, Amex Everyday, Delta Gold, Amex Green and a couple synchrony backed cards and never ran into issues. All of these approvals had subsequent limit increases and 25-30 inquiries at the time of application.
Pre approval pages honestly aren't gewat but they do help limit inquiries but if you don't prequalify and you already have 8+ inquiries, submitting the application won't do much harm. My suggestion after each denial you speak to the back door number/credit analyst and say "i know I have a lot of inquiries on my report but that was mainly to grow my credit in order to approve for your card. I have wanted this card for a long time and plan on using it as my daily driver" this usually makes them happy to give you at least a toy limit assuming everything else looks okay!obviously I can't promise that inquiries won't be a factor at all but also people can't guaranty that you won't be approved for the cards you want! As long as you have fair to good scoring I say go for it! I will say that I will never regret my approach to credit and piling on inquiries up front and cards to grow with strong cards over time. I have my house, my car, and every credit card I could possibly want. I will be gardening and just letting my strong card base age. Obviously a lot depends on scores, what your profile is made of and income but you never know! ...
I think your suggestions about the marginal impacts of inquiries could be highly misleading to those seeking guidance on credit factors, @Anonymous. While I won't question your personal experience and observations, I would like to highlight your comment that the impact is very profile-specific and it's a complex topic, as with all credit factors. Therefore, it's not really a "false narrative" as the impacts depend on many overall considerations.
For example, someone might accrue many inquiries (but few new accounts) from either shopping for a mortgage or car loan, or from applying for and being denied for cards their profile didn't merit. But for someone whose approval rate is 100% on new accounts, it might take many fewer inquiries relative to new accounts before the inquiries (combined with new accounts) is a limiting factor. Inquiries also report by the credit reporting bureau. If I apply for a card with a lender who pulls TU alone and I have inquiries of (TU:1; EQ: 25; EX: 40), the lender won't "see" 66 total inquiries when they pull my credit. They will see 1 inquiry, plus how many new accounts I've opened. On the other hand, if they pull EX, they will see all 40 inquiries on that CRB alone. For a lender like Capital One who does the triple-pull, they may see them all. There are many lenders who will pull at least two CRB reports, depending on the profile and prior relationship with the applicant. Also, the age of inquiries is a huge factor. The more distant, the better. You may have high inquiries that are 23 months old versus high inquiries that are 1 month old. After 12 months, a lender will still see your inquiries even though they become non-scorable to FICO. All of this (and probably more I neglected to mention) needs to be taken into consideration.
Your posting also admits the limitations of applying for credit with many inquiries. You gave the advice of what others should do "after each denial" when in reality, we should be trying to encourage other members to apply only when approval seems likely. Suggesting that denials are normal is counterproductive to community support. Denials and the toy limits you also admitted are both signs that lenders aren't pleased with your profile and if you are able to recon a subsequent approval or a toy limit, it was a marginal approval. Sometimes, those cards and limits may grow as you suggested. But sometimes, they may litter someone's profile with lower-limit and higher APR cards which can inhibit their ability to get the better cards and better terms they desire.
I've had credit cards for over 35 years, and one thing I will acknowledge about your posting is that the fear of hard inquiries may be a little overblown. For much of my credit life, I've followed the general guidance of limiting myself to a low single-digit number per CRB. After I came to My Fico, I learned that with the right overall credit profile, a slightly higher number of inquiries might not be as bad as I previously had thought. I went through a period of a couple of years opening more new accounts than I had ever done before and was quite successful for awhile. However, even with a thick well-developed file, 825+ credit scores, a high income, and low debts relative to income, I reached a point where I was declined for cards with AMEX and Navy FCU with far fewer inquiries than you discussed. That's probably because until that point, I was at 100% approval rate and had 1:1 ratio of new accounts relative to inquiries. Those were my first denials in decades, and combined with lower limit approvals towards the end of my approvals was a warning sign to me that I needed to slow my roll. At the time of my AMEX denial, my inquiries in 24 months were only EQ:3; EX: 6; TU:2. At the time of my NFCU denial, my inquiries in 24 months were EQ: 4; EX:8; TU:2.
Could I have continued my spree? Of course, and I probably would have found a few lenders who would have given me cards, albeit with lower limits, but I would have also been likely to get even more denials in my search. Besides the overall credit profile, it comes down to what your objectives are in applying for cards. If you're content with littering your profile with denials and low limits, then it may be true that it's possible to get approvals even with very high inquiries. But even that depends on both the lender and the applicant's overall credit profile. However, if you're looking for a higher chance of quality approvals with better starting limits, better cards and lenders, and better APRs, limiting overall inquiries may still be important.
My post was more to discuss the limitations of holding back due to inquiry fears. You can't really grow your score without applying for new credit. I was talking more about common advice regarding a multi year rebuild of credit. What I am saying is that instead of being fearful of adding additional inquiries and going for "safe cards" you could apply and be approved for a card like a freedom or discover IT card vs a credit one card.
I think too commonly the advice is slow and steady where instead I prefer the approach of strong up front and grow from there with quality cards instead of cards that will later be closed down or incur high annual fees. If you have some late pays that have aged suppressing you score the best way to deplete those late pays is by adding new credit as this both positively impacts percent of payments on time and percent of credit never past due.
Also, I do appreciate the point about a high APR but I would counter that a high APR is somewhat irrelevant while rebuilding or building credit because maxing out a card is counterproductive to the rebuild. If you PIF or carry less than 9% balance on said card the impact would be minimal when it comes to interest rates.
what I am saying is that I would prefer a decline and recon on a no annual fee mid tier card than advising a credit one card with a high annual fee relative to limit that is why I mentioned recon.
I also completely agree, limiting inquiries is extremely important as you hit the prime card market as this is really when you would feel the suppression. My advice was centered around building a solid card base that can age and remain open with you then garden for inquiries to fall off and then you are left with a thick report, many payments and decent overall scores to start shopping increases and prime cards.
again this is all my opinion of course, but I do think there is a nice middle ground that can be met for those rebuilding credit. Every profile is different and this may not work well for people who left deficiencies with lenders, recently filed bankruptcy...etc this is more for the people who may have had a couple late pays on 2 open accounts and a thin file. I think if you have serious derogatory items you would need to approach this differently. Again just my opinion and appreciate the feedback!
I can just say that the BB bank I work for commercially does not care much about inquiries and feedback I have heard from our retail departments is that inquiries are not as big of a deal as people may think 
and many of the actually analysts can easily override an inquiry decline and would love to do so to acquire more business! It is a matter of getting past the algorithm to an actual analyst with the power to override those decisions.
I agree, but you can get around Chase inquiries what you can't get around is 5/24
I would disagree, the algorithm may be "inquiry sensitive" but this does not necessarily meet the banks overall risk appetite which is why I suggested recon. I would say that is much better advice than paying $95/year for a $300 limit but that is just me. Every profile is different and I've auto approved for several cards so that could mean others can as well. I am assuming my profile is not entirely unique meaning others can in fact accomplish the same thing. Banks aren't inheritently inquiry sensitive, the algorithm picks up a general number and deems it credit seeking or not depending on time and quantity of inquiries over x months. Some banks may be higher or lower but to say one bank is entirely inquiry sensitive is false. For example, I did a recon for my CSP to get approved but three weeks later I auto approved for $7.7k on Amazon issued by chase bank. This is an example of one product being more exclusive than another and how the sensitivity to certain things varies product to product.
of course others may not have the same result as this is an opinion post, I am just saying that a lot of fear is created around inquiries and it is not as big of a deal as others may think. Isn't that the point of this forum, giving advice though it may be different than how others feel? I am simply stating that whenever the topic comes up there is one answer and I decided to give a completely different point of view on the topic.