Having worked for a credit bureau and extensive conversations with reps from the major credit reporting agencies I have learned this much about how credit inquiries work.
All auto loan inquiries made within 30 days are suppressed one month before affecting credit scores.
If a consumer is applying for a mortgage loan then all inquiries made within 14 days are just counted as one hit against the credit score, further more like the auto inquiries - these will be suppressed for 30 days before affecting the score.
All applications for credit or access by collection agencies are hard hit inquiries against the score.
Employment, utilities, rentals, insurance are soft hit inquiries, they show on the report but they don't affect the score.
All inquiries consumers make in ordering the own personal credit report is soft hits against the score, further more lenders pulling the credit reports will not see inquiries made by consumers.
Technically according to the Fair Credit Reporting act the only inquiries that are suppose to show for 2 years are employment inquiries, but for some reason the credit reporting agencies ignore that rule and show all inquiries. But none of the hard hit inquiries affect the credit score after one year.
Consumers should not apply for new credit more then 2 or 3 times per year, each hit can cost 2 to 10 points against the score. So if you are borderline on getting a mortgage loan, watch out for adding any new inquiries, it might just drop a consumer out of prime interest range into sub-prime range. Oh and consumers should never shop for credit cards during an application for a mortgage loan.
Thanks,
Great advcie, thank you for a great article, I am it will have lots of attention.
Thank you very much, them inquiries can be pesky, not the easiest things to get removed off of the credit report, once a consumer over shops unwittingly and piles on too many inquiries - no amount of new applications is gong to get the person approved, new lenders see the over kill on shopping and will refuse application.