A new credit inquiry that actually increased my FICO score! Really?

[eft2013]

So when I thought that new credit inquiries would either lower or have no impact on your FICO scores, I received notice from myFico that a new credit inquiry increased my FICO score ... EX by 8 and EQ by 2.  As a background, I applied for a NASA PLOC which triggered a HP on EX and a CLOC with NFCU (triggered HP on EP). Is is something about credit inquires for those type of loans?  Now I'm really confused about how credit inquiries may impact scores and I 'm hoping that the vast knowledge in this Forum can provide some insight.  After reading many threads in this forum, I thought my knowledge on credit was pretty good... Well nope... back to elementary school I go! 

[azguy13]

This was discussed in a thread a few days ago. Something else must have reported at the same time as you INQ that triggered the increase. INQs do not raise a credit score. Either your UTL was lowered, it was your accounts aging, or somethign dropped off. Since the increases were so small I would assume it had to do with aging or UTL. 

However, I am confident in saying it was not due to the INQ. It was just a coincidence. 

[Anonymous]

I can assure you that this inquiry didn't increase score; no HP does. It was a trigger for myFICO to get new data. Getting new credit lines probably lowered your utilization which caused the score to go up. Not the inquiry. myFICO lists the trigger in the alerts. Sometimes the trigger listed under alerts IS the actual cause but in this case, it is not.

[eft2013]

Thanks to you both for your advice.  I was approved for both and it probably did help my UTIL. 

[Anonymous]

As others have mentioned, sometimes I'll have a balance decrease and an inquiry show up at the same time, and both will say a score increase, but it was actually only due to the balance decrease.