JustinIND wrote:
It is my understanding that FICO allows one to 'rate shop' for certain products such as mortgages without affecting their FICO score. From reading other's comments on this site it seems that for some people a single inquiry can lower one's score significantly.
My next question would be if I was rate shopping say for a mortgage, and before I had no inquiries on my report... would my second inquiry's FICO score reflect the score with no inquiries or with one inquiry? In otherwords would it be advantageous for me to rate shop and apply with my preferred lender first?
Mortgage inquiries are suppressed from FICO scoring for 30 days, precisely to avoid that "first hit" effect. The first inquiry will appear on your credit report, but it will not affect your score. If you continue your mortgage shopping beyond 30 days, then the inquiry will be factored into your score. As you already know, mortgage inquiries that take place within any 45 day period are scored as a single inquiry. This 45 day window applies to the newer versions of FICO, including the EQ score you get here and the TU 04 score (which is not what is available here).
