@Anonymous wrote:Thanks, CM! You're the best. Really kind words.
So its sounds like two things happened almost exactly at the same time: two inquiries went away and the loan was added.
BTW, you say that two inquiries were removed. Is that literally what happened? The CRA agreed to the removal of two inquiries, possibly due to a dispute? Typically people do not have any luck with that, so I am impressed if you made that happen. Or do you mean that the two inquiries crossed over being 365 days old?
As far as the scoring impact of the inquiries, do you mind telling us what the total number of inquries were prior to the two going away? If the number of inquries was really large, there might be zero impact. (E.g. 18 inquiries to 16.) But even if the number was smaller, I have heard many of the veterans here claim that inquiry impact is assessed in a step function, something like:
0-1: no impact
2-3: minus 4 points
4-5: minus 4 more points
6-8: minus 4 more points
etc.
If so, then two inquries going away would be at most only 3-5 points, not 3-5 points x 2. It is conceivable that you might also be getting some points if at the same time that the inquries went away you crossed a different threshold, e.g. if the percentage of "new" accounts (< 365 days old) on your profile went to 0%, or went from > 25% to < 25% (etc.).
Regardless, thanks for the feedback! Good to know that you got some help. Curious to hear what happened on the other bureaus.
Difference on my file between 2 and 3 inquiries was 7 points on EQ Beacon 5.0. That's the only hard datapoint I have (wound up having it repeat a few times during my mortgage process with some older inquiries conveniently aging off while I got the mortgage ones added), though I've gotten a number of 0->1 inquiry with no movement on FICO 8 at least. But yeah, it's a step function with diminishing returns in terms of damage.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks, CM! You're the best. Really kind words.
So its sounds like two things happened almost exactly at the same time: two inquiries went away and the loan was added.
BTW, you say that two inquiries were removed. Is that literally what happened? The CRA agreed to the removal of two inquiries, possibly due to a dispute? Typically people do not have any luck with that, so I am impressed if you made that happen. Or do you mean that the two inquiries crossed over being 365 days old?
As far as the scoring impact of the inquiries, do you mind telling us what the total number of inquries were prior to the two going away? If the number of inquries was really large, there might be zero impact. (E.g. 18 inquiries to 16.) But even if the number was smaller, I have heard many of the veterans here claim that inquiry impact is assessed in a step function, something like:
0-1: no impact
2-3: minus 4 points
4-5: minus 4 more points
6-8: minus 4 more points
etc.
If so, then two inquries going away would be at most only 3-5 points, not 3-5 points x 2. It is conceivable that you might also be getting some points if at the same time that the inquries went away you crossed a different threshold, e.g. if the percentage of "new" accounts (< 365 days old) on your profile went to 0%, or went from > 25% to < 25% (etc.).
Regardless, thanks for the feedback! Good to know that you got some help. Curious to hear what happened on the other bureaus.
Going over my hard copy from TU i see that there WAS a total (8) INQ's in the past (1) year, BEFORE 3 (expired per the12 month rule) in February alone.
THOSE must/might be the one's (only just now in March reporting expired per FICO rules).
Next month (2) more will have completed 12 months followed by another (1) coming up in May which will leave (for FICO scoring purposes) only (2) lonely INQ's on my TU. (Gardening Is Great!) 
However that, the SSL came into play, and to what degree can be argued against, or to the favor of, those good points that you made about crossing a separate "threshold" at the same time.
But this IS by far the most noteable FICO increase for my profile realized yet!
And at least a fair portion for that additional boost is unmistakably attributed to the "breakpoint" being crossed in the Mix factor of the installment loan.
No other factors are as evident or apply to any other measure which i've seen so far.
So in conclusion it does seem that the expired INQ's (per FICO 12 month rule) coinciding/coupled with the newly reporting reduced "amounts owed to original balance" per the mix category on the IL, and either in addition to, or in spite of "some other" threshold is forced a net upward swing in score.
Experian and Equifax details will be forthcoming too as soon as available.
UPDATE* Results are in for Equifax. Another net gain, this time +24 points. Experian results to be determined.