dumb question on Hard Credit Inquries..

[Anonymous]

Let’s say Bob was feeling excited and a bit over confident with his newly achieved 725 FICO score. He figured he could take a few immediate hits applying for some new rewards cards and a much needed personal loan.

So he applies for ACME Personal Loans and gets dinged 8 points on this HCI.

Applies for CSR card and gets dinged 6 points on this HCI. Applies for Barclays Visa and gets dinged 4 points on this HCI

He gets approved for all of the above.

In a couple of years when these 3 inquiries finally drop off his CR, will he get all 18 pts. back (assuming within the course of the two years he keeps his payments on time and creditworthiness)?

[Anonymous]

Yes... But not in a couple of years. He'd get all of the points back in exactly 1 year, as after 1 year inquiries become unscoreable even though they're still visible on your CR for another year after that.

[FinStar]

OP, this is also assuming that your fictional character, Bob, doesn't apply for anything else in that span of time (or less than 2 years) as the new accounts' score impacts normalize with the rest of his fictional profile.

[Anonymous]

Great responses by BBS and FinStar.  To dovetail on what Fin said, there's a very common belief that the inquiry is the only way that a new account hurts your score.  This would not be true.

There are many factors affected: Age of Youngest Account gets dropped to zero, Average Age of Accounts is lowered, the percentage of new accounts in your profile is increased, etc.  These are all distinct scoring factors aside from the inquiry.

[Anonymous]

Fictionally speaking yes Bob does not apply during the 2 year span of the HCI. So BBS’s comments regarding getting it all back in a year is helpful and just to clarify I’m not Bob heheh...

[Anonymous]

Thanks for this feedback