Question about inquires...

[KBraggs]

Hey everyone. I've been gardening for just over a year now, and I have a question for some of the more knowledgeable. Will a credit card company consider by whom an inquiry is conducted when they are reviewing an application for credit? I am aware that inquiries are only worth ~10% of your FICO score, however with the credit climate today, many lenders are unpredictable and will deny you for a seemingly invalid reason (too many inquires, new accounts, etc)...so I'm just a little bit curious about it.

For instance, I have 2 inquiries on my EQ report from the last 12 months, one from an apartment complex and the other from my cable company. They aren't extending credit in the more traditional sense per se, although I understand technically they are. Would a CC company take this into consideration vs. HP from another credit card company? Would there have to be a recon/manual review for this to be considered??

[RobertEG]

Its certainly up to any prospective creditor how they view information in your credit file, but certainly the distinction between seeking more debt in the form of a CC or consumer loan is much different than securing utilities, housing, etc. 

A "manual" review of some sort (perhaps not hands-on, but rather using computers) would be required to evaluate such information.

Under the risk-based pricing provisions of the FCRA and its implementing rules, if they use any information in your CR, and they either decline your application or offer you rates less favorable than those they offer to others, they must so inform you.  I would kinda doubt that a credtior would want to send a risk-based pricing notice to a consumer based on the impact of a credit inquiry.......

[KBraggs]

I have personally been CLD'd on a CC for high inquires..

[RobertEG]

Under the risk-based pricing rules,

"If a creditor conducts an account review and must provide a risk-based pricing

notice as a result of an increased annual percentage rate, the notice must also

include a statement that the creditor conducted a review of the account using

information from a credit report and that as a result of the review, the APR has

been increased based on information from a consumer report."

While this addresses only changes in APR, and does not specifically mention CL, the same logic would apply, in my opinion, as it results in providing credit to the consumer at less favorable terms.

You might have grounds for contesting a decrease in CL without providing you required notice of their use of credit report inquires as a reason, thus giving you a free credit report.