buster61 wrote:
ok, how long do they impact your credit scores? 3 points X 15 inquiries...that means 45 points off of my scores?
Hard inquiries - are all 15 inquiries actually hard pulls? - remain on your credit reports for two years, but only affect your scores for one year. And they only affect the score of the credit bureau on which they appear. So if you have 14 inquiries on EQ and 1 on TU, your TU score won't be affected as much.
The math for the effect of inquiries isn't so cut-and-dried. Many people will report no discernible effect from an inquiry. I've actually got a SW alert from early January that reported a new inquiry and an increase in my EQ score. Obviously, the inquiry itself wasn't responsible for the increase (there must have been other changes to my credit report), but it goes to show that it's hard to consider individual scoring factor in isolation.
The other thing to consider is the nature of all those inquiries. If they were all part of applications for credit cards, then they could all have a negative effect on your score. However, if you were applying for a new car loan or a mortgage and inquiries were made at several banks within a two week period, then all of these would be treated as just one inquiry for FICO scoring purposes, and the net effect would be minimal.
