Impact of multiple hard inquiries questions

[Anonymous]

I recently purchased a new car, after applying at a local car dealer. Although I got a loan from a financial institution (given my low score) i noticed in my credit report to have about five new hard inquiries.

I have heard that when car and mortgage shopping that multiple inquiries should not hurt your score in they are within 14 days of each other. Is this true?

I think my score may be affected given these are inquiries from financial institutions and ther is no clear distinction of purpose for this hard pull - it does not say car loan anywhere in the inquiry. So does anyone think like I do, this may indeed be hurting my score?

Second question; I do not recognize thes creditors and am pretty sure the car dealer just submitted my deal to multiple lenders to see what sticked. Can I dispute these inquiries? what are my chances of getting them dropped?

Thanks for your help.

[laz98]

you are only partially correct.  the correct information is that all of the auto-shopping-around inquiries will count as ONE inquiry, vs. 5 or 10 or whatever.  so, that ONE inquiry can & often does hurt your score, even if it's just a couple of points.  but it's much less damage than the 5 or 10 or whatever number of inquiries.

no, i doubt you could dispute the inquiries.  i have seen a lot of people ask this same question...i don't think you have much leverage to get them dropped.

[AndySoCal]

The older models of the FICO score the period was 14 days. With the newer models it has been expanded to 30 to 45 days for mortgages and auto loans only.

[laz98]

good info to know!  thank you!

[RobertEG]

It depends upon how the inquiry was coded.  If it was not coded as an auto loan inq, then FICO has no way to group inquireis made within the window into one for scoring purposes.

[poet]

I now have 19--19!!!!--hard inquiries, but only applied for credit through three dealerships. They do the "splatter" method of finance, but that does not mean I authorized any of these in particular, nor any particular number of inquiries total.

I did dispute several of these in hopes of having them dropped. I don't mind, say, one or even two each--but half a dozen?! That's insane. They know which auto-enhanced score they pulled; they don't show them to me; some equivocated when I asked them outright for my score; and they know which score tiers to send to which lenders.

Not sure how 16 of those 19 hard pulls within a week's time (3 are old non-auto-related) magically translate into "one, sorta kinda but not really."

OTOH, my score only dropped four points--but the car payment hasn't appeared on my reports yet.

[RobertEG]

A dispute of inquiries appearing in your CR is based on FCRA 604(c)(3), which prohibits the furnishing of a record of credit inquiries relatng to credit or insurance transactions that were not initiated by the consumer.  It does not even refer to business transactions not involving credit, which are separately permitted under FCRA 604(a)(3)(F).  That is the extent of CRA involvement in the inclusion of inquiries in your CR.  If you initated a business transaction, or a transaction for credit or insurance, it can legitmately post in your CR.  So there is very little that a CRA is prevented from posting (unless you assert the business or credit transaction was not intiated by you), and thus disputes of credit reporting of inquiries are easily dismissed by the CRAs.

In fact, upon implementing the new direct dispute process under FCRA 623(a)(8), inquires were explictly excluded as a disputable item.

As to how an inqury is coded by the party who make the inquiry, the FCRA never uses the terms "hard" or "soft" inquiry.  CR coding is up to the inquiree, and is not formally disputable.  You can, of course, discuss that personally with the creditor, but not dispute it under the FCRA..

As for the so-called "de-duping" of multiple auto or mortgage inquiries over a certain window of time, that is solely a FICO scoring issue, to which, again, the CRAs are not a party.

[poet]

Well, I don't know whether the de-duping (I assume that this means "counting multiple inquiries within a short period of time as one inquiry") is in force or not. I've just checked and see about a 40-point drop. I think that's due to the new car, but more so due to a new retail card and a moderate UTIL increase overall. I'm interested to see how my score will bounce up and down between now and April. I should be clear by February, but convention travel that month will likely smack me back down again in March. Sigh. Can't wait to get back to F-T job next year!!!

[Anonymous]

Similar type ques: how much will it mess up my score if I open a $5000 personal loan through my credit union to pay up my credit cards while I need to get a new car in the next month-month and a half? My score at the beginning of the month was 688 TU and 696 Equifax. The credit union pulled 697 when they were looking into autoloan possibilities for me...

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Similar type ques: how much will it mess up my score if I open a $5000 personal loan through my credit union to pay up my credit cards while I need to get a new car in the next month-month and a half? My score at the beginning of the month was 688 TU and 696 Equifax. The credit union pulled 697 when they were looking into autoloan possibilities for me...

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Your score might well increase rather than drop, once the CC's report as paid. (You'll do better to let one report a small balance rather than have all report $0. If you do this, don't forget to then pay off that small balance.)

That's because revolving util carries a lot more weight than does installment, so moving your debt to a loan would probably help, if your util is high now.

Just realize that it's terribly easy to get balances back on CC's after doing this, and then you have a loan and new CC balances to contend with. And a car note, I guess.