Credit Inquiries and Scores

[BallBounces]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Mine were all credit card, within the past few months. 13 Tu, 11 EQ ,10 Ex. It was very, very interesting to see what happened to my score with inq's and new accounts on a very clean report (The only things showing were a AU on a CAP One card with a perfect payment history, and about 30% util that I have been on for a year and a half, and a CapOne secured card with a small limit). I went from a 725 to a 712 on TU, 690 to 684 on EQ, and 716 to 709 on Ex. I added 9 accounts total, a mix of store and MC/Visa.

I want to buy a house in a year or so, and had NO established credit history. I figured this would be the easiest way - I have money in the bank, make good money, and have almost zero living expenses. I don't need the cards at all, but I will probably need to wualify for a mortgage in a year or so... No car loan, I paid cash for that.. We will see what happens with my scores in the next year...!

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Now we are getting off topic a bit, but:

If you really want to tweak your score for a mortgage, and you have the time, make sure you understand the impact of an installemnt loan.

You mention no car loan.  Do you have/had a student loan?  Any other personal installment loans?  It is possible that you would benefit from a secured installment loan.  Don't take my advice blindly, but you may want to poke around about it and create a new topic on it for some experts to chime in..

[BallBounces]

Almost forgot, OP,  congratulations on your responsible use of debt and credit!

[Revelate]

Indeed, it's a step function TT; I don't think the numbers are right for the ranges but that may well depend on file though I tend to think probably not.

I do explicitly know there's a breakpoint between 2 and 3 inquiries on EQ Beacon 5, but I'm not sure there's any at either 1 or 2.

CU inquiries do count in my experience, what was more likely was you didn't change bins.  I've always been surprised when I've gone from 0->1 inquires and not seen a change, but it happens to me on both EQ 04 and the FICO 8 models I have access to historically but it's been hard for me to track individual inquiries as I app spree.  That's a future stupid test when I'm gold plated and don't have a need for a given report for more than a year heh.  TU I'm looking at you with CLI requests on Barclays and FIA card services I guess.

I got a number of inquries between June and August last year, I'm going to try to keep my report changes static with enough small balance changes to trigger updates and see if I can try to tease out some data as we go from bunch of scoreable inquiries ->0 on 2 reports, and ->1 on EX.

[Thomas_Thumb]

Revelate,

As you say inquiries are a rather small factor in the grand scheme of credit scoring. Also, at some count level (likely under 10) we know additional inquiries cease to have any further impact. I don't have any data points on Fico 08 as my score has been constant. 

As I recall, Inverse saw an impact going from 2 INQ to 1 INQ and 0 INQ. Don't recall the CRA but his Fico 08 score went from 840 to 845 going from 2 to 1. His score was 850 with zero INQ on data from a different CRA. So, the 1 to 0 was not definitive as it could be CRA related.

About 1.5 years ago a CLI at Best Buy resulted in a HP on EQ. That lone inquiry fell off last July and my EQ Fico 04 score increased from 796 to 809. When I received the PenFed HP late November 2015 my EQ Fico 04 score remained at 809. So based on my experience and Oilcan's posts relating to Fico 08 (see shortcuts below), I am unsure how CU HPs are being factored - and perhaps it depends on the CU. 

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Would-2-or-3-inquiries-prevent-a-FICO-sco...

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Understanding-FICO-Scoring/Would-2-or-3-inquiries-prevent-a-FICO-sco...