hard pull for homeowner's insurance quote?

mta · ‎12-03-2009

Just got a quick online homeowner's insurance quote yesterday, and today got a score watch alert indicating a new inquiry on my credit. The funny thing is, it didn't even lower my score at all, even though I thought score watch only did alerts for hard pulls. I figured applying for insurance should result in only soft pulls because I'm not applying for credit. I'm kind of confused here.

Should I continue to shop around for homeowner's insurance even if there's a risk of hard pulls? I'm under contract and already got a conditional approval, and I have to think that even if hard pulls damage my score the underwriters would expect homeowner insurance inquiries to be on there. Anyone else ever get hard pulls for insurance quotes?

hawkeye33 · ‎12-04-2009

Who quoted you with a hard pull? I got quotes from State Farm, Allstate, Amica Mutual and American Family, and I don't believe any of them hard-pulled. You should be fine. As you say, UW and lender in general knows that you're going to be shopping for homeowners insurance.

mta · ‎12-04-2009

It was Liberty Mutual that did the pull. I'm not exactly sure it was a hard pull, though, since my score didn't change. I just thought that all inquiry alerts gotten through Score Watch were by definition hard pulls. Anyway, I'm not too worried about it-- it's just that my score is so borderline that one inquiry could put my loan in jeopardy.

StartinOver · ‎12-05-2009

How do you tell a hard pull from a soft? I know they divide inquiries on a credit report into 1)ones everyone sees 2) what only I see. But I don't know how to tell hard from soft. Can someone educate me here, or is there a link to where someone has explained it before? Thanks!

4/25/11 FICO: EQ 761....EX 770.....TU 744
3/6/2011 FICO: EQ 710... EX 718... TU 710
09/09 FICO: EQ: 525

Anonymous · ‎12-08-2009

A soft pull wouldn't show up on your credit report.

Anonymous · ‎12-12-2009

@StartinOver wrote:
How do you tell a hard pull from a soft? I know they divide inquiries on a credit report into 1)ones everyone sees 2) what only I see. But I don't know how to tell hard from soft. Can someone educate me here, or is there a link to where someone has explained it before? Thanks!

The hard pull is the "what everyone sees" section, the soft pull is the what you and the puller see section. For the original poster, Scorewatch only alerts for hard pulls. In my experience, not every hard inquiry costs me points. Maybe this one is your freebie. Still may be worth questioning Liberty Mutual, maybe they can remove/re-code it.

Message Edited by rmily on 12-12-2009 09:50 PM

mta · ‎12-14-2009

Update: got a new "Score Power" report today, and there was no HOI inquiry there. Liberty Mutual must have decided they had made a mistake and removed/re-coded it. I've been shopping around and no other inquiries have appeared. I think it's fair to say for everyone else on here that shopping around for HOI is safe.

Besides, even if they were hard pulls, I would have to question any lender that would deny the loan because the score was brought down due to shopping around for HOI. That's just what good consumers do, and they require it to close the deal!

Anonymous · ‎12-22-2009

Liberty Mutual just did the same thing to me! My score dropped 7 points. Grrrr... looks like they'll be getting a call from me.

mta · ‎12-23-2009

I would definitely do that and also warn others about Liberty Mutual! That sucks that your hard inq cost you points. My score didn't go down at all, but I think it's because I only had one other hard inq on my report at the time (from a few months ago).

For somebody in the know: is it true each new hard inq costs you more points if you already have a lot of hard inqs on your report compared to someone with no or few hard inqs?