Credit Inquiries

Do Inquiries Cost Me Points Off My Credit Score?

Yes & No

Not All inquiries hurt your credit score. The inquiry that does NOT hurt your credit score….is the one pulled by one of your credit accounts currently reporting to the CB. This is considered a “soft” pull and no points are deducted. There are also investigative agencies that do file searches that will not pull down your score. ALL other credit inquiries count against your credit score. The amount of the score decrease is proportionate to the liability potential. An insurance company inquiry , for example, would be a 4-6 point deduction. A Mercedes, a home, a boat…..would all be high ticket items with maximum liability….they would deduct up to 15 points a piece for these inquiries! Imagine what happens when you go to an auto dealership and they ” broadcast “ your credit file to multiple finance companies. Every submittal reduces your overall score!

Every time that someone looks at your credit report, the inquiry is noted. If you have lots of inquiries on your report, it may appear that you are shopping for several loans at once - or that you have been rejected by lenders. Both make you appear a poor credit risk and may affect your credit score. This means that you should be careful about who looks at your credit report. If you are shopping for a loan, shop around within a short period of time, since inquiries made within 14 days of each other will generally be lumped together and counted as one inquiry.

You can also cut down on the number of inquiries on your account by approaching lenders you have already researched and may be interest in doing business with - by researching first and approaching second - you will likely have only a few lenders accessing your credit report at the same time, which can help save your credit score.