How bad do inquiries hurt your credit score?

[Anonymous]

I've heard a number of stories about multiple inquiries, and some people say they don't hurt your score if they're in a certain time frame, and others say it still can.  Now I don't want the typical mortgage broker lines, such as, all inquiries in a 30 day period only count as one, etc.  I'd like to hear from an expert, how these things really reflect in my score.  The guy that got me my last mortgage said I can call back monthly, and he'll pull my credit to let me know how I stand.  Is that going to bring down my score too?  Thanks in advance for any help with these questions.

[Anonymous]

I have been hit for as many as 6 points for a single inquiry, it depends on you score.  Multiple inquiries in a twoweek peropd such as those for suot or home loans are generally considred by FICO as one inqury.  The same cannot be said for inquiries for revolving credit.

I would not let anyone pull my credit monthly unless of course they are soft pulls. You can monitor your own score thruoe scorewatch at myfico.  If he is going to do a tri-merge verify that these will be soft on each bureau otherwise, you will do damage to your score.

[Anonymous]

About the certain time frame - how much your score drops from multiple inquiries is indeed impacted by how close they are. YMMV of course, but generally close (not sure exact number, but I believe it's somewhere around a week) inquiries get scored less negatively as if they're more spaced out.

[yoreljm]

If you already have an account, he can make "soft inquiries", which are not factored into the FICO score because you were not seeking credit. Soft inquiries dont show up to creditors, only to you. Just make sure he is doing soft inquiries, and not "hard inquiries" that they do when you are seeking new credit.

[Anonymous]

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okrogius wrote:

About the certain time frame - how much your score drops from multiple inquiries is indeed impacted by how close they are. YMMV of course, but generally close (not sure exact number, but I believe it's somewhere around a week) inquiries get scored less negatively as if they're more spaced out.

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That is not true.  Generally credit sought for mortgage o loan applications, within a two week period, count as one inquiry.  That is because there is logic incorporated into the FICO scoring system that prevents you from being penalized for shopping around for the best rate for a large purchase.  In order for this to be true, the lender must also be coded as a mortgage or auto lender. 

On the other hand if you went out and got say three estimates from mortgage brokers over a six weeks period, approximately two weeks apart, EACH inquiry would be counted individually. 

As  far as being spaced out, the model allows for so much credit shopping during a year or s, the older the inquiry the less of an affect it would have on the score which may be why it seems that 'spaced out' inquiries would have less of an effect.  However I have seen multiple inquiries in a short period have no effect then each subsequent inquiry over the thhreshold of tolerance for my particular score hit me for 6 points each. 

[Anonymous]

"That is not true.  Generally credit sought for mortgage o loan applications, within a two week period, count as one inquiry.  That is because there is logic incorporated into the FICO scoring system that prevents you from being penalized for shopping around for the best rate for a large purchase.  In order for this to be true, the lender must also be coded as a mortgage or auto lender. "

Multiple inquiries getting counted as one is a way of having multiple inquiries get scored less negatively. The only reason I mention it in such oblique terms is this is somewhat dependant upon how the inquiries are coded (e.g. multiple credit card inquiries in a close time span sometimes get counted as one, etc ymmv).

[Anonymous]

what about if 3 inquiries is going to come off the report will the score go up or not.

[haulingthescoreup]

Are these three inqs going over 12 months, or over 24 months? (They display on full reports, although not FICO reports, for 24 months.)

If they're going over 12 months, you might get several points each. More importantly, if these inqs resulted in new credit cards, you'll get more points, maybe 8-10, for each of them when they go over a year old.

If the inqs are going over 24 months, they stopped counting a year ago, and they've only been displaying. So no change in score, but lenders won't be able to see them any more.

[Anonymous]

14 days for grouping hits. Very rarely will lenders do soft pulls for you. If you need to know your scores pull them directly with ScoreWatch or ScorePower. Even EQ sells scores for around $7 with each CR.

[rom828]

Trying to understand this inquiry thing.

TU and EQ  both show 3 inquiries, one on 8-20 and two on 8-21, and two of the inquiries clearly show they are by the same lender.

My mortgage broker did these inquries for mortgage approval and we closed on our house 10-11.

Are they automatically grouped a 1 inquiry due to the dates, or do I need to dispute to correct?

I'm still relatively new at this credit scoring  game, so not sure just what to or how to go about it!!

THANKS!!

Message Edited by rom828 on 02-22-2008 08:02 AM