How many inquiries are 'too many'?

[Anonymous]

I finally got my scores up high enough to apply for new credit.

I'm trying to be smart about which cards I apply to (tailor to CRAs where I have the best scores, ones which were positively reviewed here for CLs and approvals.) I know I'll take a hit once I have new accounts but that will rebound.

I have two new cards, HSCB and Hooters, one pulled TU, one pulled Efx.

I have about 5 more cards lined up for April/May (when hopefully an AU will report and an item or two will fall-off) but I want to apply for financing on Gateway for a new laptop.

How many inquiries in the last year are seen as 'bad'?

Currently I have 4 on TU (3 falling off on 5/1) and 1 new one on Efax, so basically by May I'll have 1 and 1. At what point will inquiries start effecting my ability to get new credit, e.g. if I do the Gateway (I think they are HSBC so Efax), will I be in good shape come May when I have 1 TU and 2 Efx to start my applications?

[Anonymous]

sounds like a perfect plan-

[haulingthescoreup]

For scoring purposes, inqs don't seem to matter until you hit the second one within a year's time.

For app'ing purposts, some CCC's don't seem to flinch, but others, like PenFed, get really jittery if you've been app'ing a lot. Although I think that if the new accounts (as well as the older ones) have really low or 0% util, they're less freaked out.

Sorry, I know that's pretty vague. And the problem is, things will probably change as the economy slides further down the tube.

[Red1Blue]

I have 45 on my EX. I just stopped counting the inquires long time ago.

[Anonymous]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
For scoring purposes, inqs don't seem to matter until you hit the second one within a year's time.

For app'ing purposts, some CCC's don't seem to flinch, but others, like PenFed, get really jittery if you've been app'ing a lot. Although I think that if the new accounts (as well as the older ones) have really low or 0% util, they're less freaked out.

Sorry, I know that's pretty vague. And the problem is, things will probably change as the economy slides further down the tube.

---

Yeah, I kind of want to apply before these cards start changing their approval processes.

[Anonymous]

---

concorduser wrote:

I have 45 on my EX. I just stopped counting the inquires long time ago.

---

45? really? I have 5 and I'm freaking out. Concord, have your fico's taken a plummet from the 45 inqs? What is your score? How many points did you lose?

[llecs]

Concorduser has got me beat; I only have 27 on EX.

Oddly enough, for the past 3-4 months, too many inquiries haven't been a denial reson if denied on an app.

[Anonymous]

I have 9 de-dupped to 4.

---

llecs wrote:

Concorduser has got me beat; I only have 27 on EX.

Oddly enough, for the past 3-4 months, too many inquiries haven't been a denial reson if denied on an app.

---

[haulingthescoreup]

Well, and also, there are only so many points that you can lose for inqs. Once you've blown through them, there's not a whole lot more damage that you can do, at least for inq points.

Of course, once your average history is down to three and a half days or something, you're going to keep getting hurt in that category. And that hurt lasts a good while.

[Anonymous]

---

@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Well, and also, there are only so many points that you can lose for inqs. Once you've blown through them, there's not a whole lot more damage that you can do, at least for inq points.

Of course, once your average history is down to three and a half days or something, you're going to keep getting hurt in that category. And that hurt lasts a good while.

---

It is the main reason I got onto my parents Amex. That adds 38 years to my credit length. I can probably keep my avg years above 7 even if I get two more new cards.