Auto inquiries not lumped together? (help)

[Anonymous]

Trying to add a 2nd auto and ran into an unanticipated problem.

I was under the impression that auto credit inquiries -- just like mortgage inquiries -- are all lumped together in 2-week windows, and that neither FICO nor Auto Enhanced scores should decrease solely because of several auto credit applications (specifically auto) in a less-than-2-week period. (In fact, I thought that lenders ought to be able to compete for business, instead of business automatically going to the first lender contacted because the subsequently contacted lenders would see a lower credit score.)

Found out the contrary: after several auto credit applications in a 10-day timeframe, got "due too many inquiries" auto loan denials, plus several car dealers telling me that my Auto Enhanced is down due to multiple inquiries within a few days.

Simple question: Are multiple car loan (not lease) applications within a 10-day period of time supposed to be combined into one aggregate inquiry for FICO (regular) and/or Auto Enhanced scoring purposes? If the official answer is Yes, why am I having this problem?

Mods, please bounce to Auto Loans if that is the more appropriate forum for this question.

[llecs]

Auto inquiries, if inside two weeks (or more depending on the FICO version), are scored as one for classic FICO scores. I don't have any idea on auto-enhanced FICO scores, but I'd assume they are the same too. Now what the lender considers "too many inquiries" is independent of your FICO score. In other words, you can still be denied due to too many inquiries if that lender considers it to be a bad thing. If I was in that situation, I would pull each CR directly from the three CRAs (or annualcreditreport) and look at the "permissible purpose" listed by each inquiry to make sure they are listed as an auto inquiry. Some lenders have omitted that in the past.

[vanillabean]

Straight from myFICO:

"most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto or mortgage lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score."

Credit score facts & fallacies

[Anonymous]

"most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto or mortgage lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score."

I guess it depends on how the lender codes the INQ,, Since I've been following this forum, several posters  have reported big score drops after Auto Stealers ran their credit thru numerous lenders and then they were unable to get loans, or got higher rates due to the score drop ,,,.

[Anonymous]

Ilecs and others - Thank You, to all who took the time to reply. This forum really is a terrific resource.

johnson_long, I am glad to hear I was not the only one reporting a similar problem.

It is unfortunate that there are no enforceable requirements for auto-lenders to report their INQs as specifically Auto INQs so that the score drop is avoided.

[RobertEG]

All of that depends upon the prospective lendors who made the inquiries coded them with the proper inquiry code identiftying it as an auto loan inquiry.

I would speculate that your problem originates with the incorrect reporting  of an inquiring code when they pulled your CR.

The CRAs record what is reported to them, and FICO scores what is recorded in your CR.