When applying when does your credit score go down?

[glamchick]

When applying for loans when do they start deducting points from your credit score?

[llecs]

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glamchick wrote:

When applying for loans when do they start deducting points from your credit score?

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In general, inquiries don't hurt unless your score is very high and/or you are going from 0 to 1 or 1 to 2 inquiries. What would hurt you is the new account that may be reporting if approved. That can hurt your avg. age and cause a score drop, but you'll get most of the points back within 4-6 months.

[glamchick]

Im walking a thin line my score is at 655 and I would like to apply for several car loans for the best interest rates.  I beleive if I go under 650 i will be at an even worse percentage rate.  I was just wondering everytime they do an inquiry how many points will be taken from me.  Im trying to stay above 650 until I get the loan.

[llecs]

Remember too that any car or home inquiries, for FICO scoring purposes are counted as one. For example, you rate shop for a new car and app 14 times, FICO reads that as one inquiry if you do this in a 30-45-60 days period. The Credit Education tab above mentions 60 days, but not sure.

You just have to make sure that the dealer or whoever codes the inquiries as "Auto". Some have reported here problems with some dealers not doing that.

Don't rely on the rates published in MyFICO. Some report that they are off. We are looking for a new home soon, for example. Reading and studying here, I see some get 6% or less with a 600 score.