I know hard pulls are no longer calculated in the most common FICO scores after a year, and that they drop off your credit report entirely after two years. But, that's all I know, and I'm hoping to fill in some blanks.
Let's suppose that some doofus named KJinNC started trying to build credit without reading this forum or other solid info first, and ended up with 11 hard pulls on EQ in short order. Just hypothetically. 
Let's suppose that when he checks preapprovals now, the messages are sometimes about too many recent inquiries.
What happens in a month? Three months? Six months? eight or ten months? Does the impact drop quickly but then a small amount lingers, or does the impact stay about the same for most or all of the 12 months?
And at the other end: even when it's no longer calculated in FICO scores, do a lot of companies still refuse you for having a ton of hard pulls from, say, 15 months ago? Are there certain types of companies or certain types of credit where it matters more or matters less? For example, is it irrelevant for auto loans but makes it hard to get highly desirable credit cards, or vice versa?
Thanks!
Regardless of it affecting your score, the inquiries stay on there until they fall off and it will be seen when the report is pulled. If your inq are excessive, you'll still be denied. Now, if you're good at recon or have good excuses for why you have so many, like a dealership shotgunned your app, then you can get by. I'm at 14 or 15 with the last 2 resulting in approvals. The oldest 2 inq will age to 1 year tomorrow.
@Andypanda wrote:
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:Regardless of it affecting your score, the inquiries stay on there until they fall off and it will be seen when the report is pulled. If your inq are excessive, you'll still be denied. Now, if you're good at recon or have good excuses for why you have so many, like a dealership shotgunned your app, then you can get by. I'm at 14 or 15 with the last 2 resulting in approvals. The oldest 2 inq will age to 1 year tomorrow.
Not meaning to hijack the thread, but what about cap 1 triple pull, or citi double pull?
Double and triple pulls are done across different bureaus. So, cap1 pulls ex, EQ, and TU. Chase pulls ex and EQ. If you apply for a sync card, they pull TU so they would only see the 1 tu hp. In my case, I average about 14 hp on each bureau so it doesn't matter which they pull.
@KJinNC wrote:I know hard pulls are no longer calculated in the most common FICO scores after a year, and that they drop off your credit report entirely after two years. But, that's all I know, and I'm hoping to fill in some blanks.
Let's suppose that some doofus named KJinNC started trying to build credit without reading this forum or other solid info first, and ended up with 11 hard pulls on EQ in short order. Just hypothetically.
Let's suppose that when he checks preapprovals now, the messages are sometimes about too many recent inquiries.
What happens in a month? Three months? Six months? eight or ten months? Does the impact drop quickly but then a small amount lingers, or does the impact stay about the same for most or all of the 12 months?
And at the other end: even when it's no longer calculated in FICO scores, do a lot of companies still refuse you for having a ton of hard pulls from, say, 15 months ago? Are there certain types of companies or certain types of credit where it matters more or matters less? For example, is it irrelevant for auto loans but makes it hard to get highly desirable credit cards, or vice versa?
Thanks!
The credit score is not the only or even always the main criteria used for a lender to make a lending decision. It is just one piece of info they use, so it might be difficult to judge whether or not you may get approval. Also, how much weight the inqueries have might differ when looking at an applicants info. In general inqueries have full effect on scores for 1 year, and like you stated, are removed from reports after 2 years. The effect on scores can be fairly predictable. The effect on approvals however may vary a great deal. I have about 20 credit cards, a mortgage, and an installment loan, on a very clean thick credit file, and my utilization is very low. For me, 5 inqueries would not even be likely to cause concern with a potential lender. If however, I had fairly high utilization, and a fairly thin file with a couple of late payments, 5 inqueries might be of much greater concern. If I had only been working at a company for 3 months, 5 inqueries might also result in rejected apps. Some people seem to think a credit score is the only important factor, but it is not. It is important, but not often the determinative factor when other very important factors are present. Pre-qualification tests may give more weight than the actual lender will. If you have worked at a stable job for 30 years and have no major baddies on your report, you might be approved where someone with a very high score gets declined. Having many inquries might be indicative of someone who is getting in over their heads, or it might just mean you want more variety in the types of credit cards you want. It can also be that you are chasing rewards and SUB's, and may not use the card much after receiving the SUB. The lending institution will try and determine what your situation is that resulted in a large number of inqueries. For the past few years I will garden for a year or so, then obtain 3 or 4 cards is a short time span, and jump back in the garden.
Thanks - it's frustrating that a flurry of hard pulls at the start of my rebuild (about half of which were unnecessary) doom me in a sense to a form of "bad credit" for two years - which will make the overall build process slower, because my scores three or four years from now may still be influenced by what I couldn't qualify for in the next two years. Oh well, live and learn.
In my case, part of it was necessary or at least justifiable (going from zero open accounts to six open accounts), but a lot of it was just silly (applying for unrealistic stuff or applying for a car loan just to see what percentage they'd come up with, with no intention of buying a car soon).
I am not sure how someone with no credit is supposed to get (say) three credit cards, an installment loan and then six months later add a better credit card or an auto loan, without getting into this type of predicament, maybe not quite as extreme. Wish they could just figure out if you were desperate for cards to stay afloat financially, and if not, then don't treat it as such a major factor. "I'm going to pay deposits on some secured cards so I can use the cards and roll them into a bankruptcy I'm about to file," said nobody ever.
KJinNC: nah, you are *supposed* to rack up the accounts and inquiries when you start your build. Frankly if you don’t establish a bunch of accounts out the gate I would argue mathematically you are doing it wrong haha.
Don’t sweat the two year thing, the one year mark is the scoring one and honestly every UW on the planet will be able to tell why you took the inquiries when they look at your report.
Sure some lenders to Brian’s point may look at any inquiries skeptically, but BBS is right too that UW requirements are generally low currently and (to sarge’s point haha) it’s not just your credit that will qualify you for products: a bunch of other factors come into play today and probably that list will expand over time.
ETA: **bleep** I am good at summarizing threads haha. Sorry it’s way too early of a morning to me sitting in LAX.
Don’t sweat the two year thing, the one year mark is the scoring one and honestly every UW on the planet will be able to tell why you took the inquiries when they look at your report.
Sure some lenders to Brian’s point may look at any inquiries skeptically, but BBS is right too that UW requirements are generally low currently and (to sarge’s point haha) it’s not just your credit that will qualify you for products: a bunch of other factors come into play today and probably that list will expand over time.
ETA: **bleep** I am good at summarizing threads haha. Sorry it’s way too early of a morning to me sitting in LAX.