Credit Inquiries - Need Verification

[Anonymous]

I have read the blurb on myFICO about what constitutes a credit inquiry which counts against you, and what does not--- below is a copy of that.

I am going to expand my credit card available credit by

-- increasing the credit line on the existing cards I have.

-- apply for a retail credit card at Kohl's.

This will give me the following cards, hopefully a good mix -

1. Chase Mastercard

2. Chase Visa

3. American Express

4. Sears card

5. Kohl's card

I will attempt to get the available credit up to $40k, so if I would like to carry a balance of $3k or $4k I will only be utilizing a small portion of available credit, but still not limiting the use of credit.

My question --

As I go about this, I ASSUME THAT MY REQUESTS TO UPGRADE MY CREDIT LIMITS OR THE APPLICATION OF A NEW KOHL'S CARD WILL NOT COUNT AGAINST ME on my next credit report.  This is how I understand the blurb provide on myFICO below.  Can anyone confirm this?

Thanks!

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Not all credit inquiries count toward your FICO® score.
When you check your credit report, you may notice that a number of credit inquiries have been made, sometimes from businesses that you don’t know. But the only inquiries that count toward your FICO score are the ones that result from your applications for new credit.

Inquiries that count toward your FICO score.
There is only one type of credit inquiry that counts toward your FICO score. When you apply for a mortgage, auto loan or other credit, you authorize the lender to request a copy of your credit report. These types of inquiries, prompted by your own actions, appear on your credit report and are included in your FICO score.

Inquiries that don’t count toward your FICO score.
Your own credit report requests, credit checks made by businesses to offer you goods or services, or inquiries made by businesses with whom you already have a credit account do not count toward your FICO score. Credit checks by prospective employers also do not count. These types of inquiries may appear on your credit report, but they are not included in your FICO score.

[cw81]

If Kohls doesn't pull a hard credit check it will not count against you and you might want to find that out before you ask for a CLI. If they pull a soft then it will be like you pulling your report or a company doing an Account review or pulling for promotional purpose if you haven't opted out and that doesn't count against you.

Message Edited by cw81 on 08-31-2008 03:13 PM

[haulingthescoreup]

But it sounds like the Kohl's card will be a new app, so you will indeed get a hard inq for it. The ding can vary, according to how many you already have, etc. The inq will only appear on the report which Kohl's pulls.

Many CCC's pull softs for CLI's; many pull hards. Check via the search function to see which way your current accounts will probably go. Chase will hard you, AmEx probably won't, Sears could go either way. They didn't hard me, but they have harded others.

I think that you should expect to get some hard inqs during this process. They're not the end of the world, though, unless you're planning to go for a mortgage or something within the next 6 months or so. They might be a problem if you do.

[cw81]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
But it sounds like the Kohl's card will be a new app, so you will indeed get a hard inq for it. The ding can vary, according to how many you already have, etc. The inq will only appear on the report which Kohl's pulls.

Many CCC's pull softs for CLI's; many pull hards. Check via the search function to see which way your current accounts will probably go. Chase will hard you, AmEx probably won't, Sears could go either way. They didn't hard me, but they have harded others.

I think that you should expect to get some hard inqs during this process. They're not the end of the world, though, unless you're planning to go for a mortgage or something within the next 6 months or so. They might be a problem if you do.

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Yeah I misread it appears you applying for a new Kohls card so it will be a hard I thought the cards listed were what you already have. HTSU said it best you might get dinged but I think its all dependent on your credit plan.