“Avoid excessive inquiries – A large number of inquiries occurred over a short period of time may be interpreted as a sign that you are opening numerous credit accounts due to financial difficulties or overextending yourself by taking on more debt than you can easily repay.”

OK, let’s interpret this statement. What the facts really are is this… The credit bureaus weigh the number of times you go “shopping” for credit because of the above reason, but they are also aware that many financial savvy consumers go shop for the best loan, interest rates and terms. Recently they have become more lenient with inquiries, but within standards. Here are some rules to live by. When “shopping” for loans, rates and terms for a house, a car or business loan, etc., be sure to do your shopping within a 14 day time frame and don’t go over 5 inquiries. More than this and you risk a heavy point loss on your credit reports. Also, be sure that you are really going to get your loan or the 5 inquiries will count against you, up to 30 points lost because you didn’t actually get the loan that you shopped for. It’s good and bad news, just be sure that you are going to get the loan when you start to apply.

Inquires hurt your good credit scores more when under a 720 credit score than over a 720 credit score.

There are 3 types of inquiries to know about as you look over your credit report. It’s important to understand them and how they affect your credit scores because they can affect your credit scores very seriously. I have seen a couples credit scores drop over 120 points because of “shopping for credit” and not realizing their inquiries were costing them points.

The third type of inquiry is an investigation inquiry for companies who are looking to see if you qualify for their loan program or their credit card.  You don’t initiate it and if you do qualify, then you will probably get a letter in the mail for a special credit card offer, a special car loan or mortgage loan offer.  Basically junk mail offers.  If you are looking for credit, then these might be helpful but if you already have established credit then these might be a nuisance.

You can “Opt Out” of this program to send you junk mail.  To do so, you can call or go to their website…  The phone call will opt you out for 5 years – 1–888–567–8688.  To opt out permanently go to www.optoutprescreen.com.

There are 3 types of inquiries to know about as you look over your credit report. It’s important to understand them and how they affect your credit scores because they can affect your credit scores very seriously. I have seen a couples credit scores drop over 120 points because of “shopping for credit” and not realizing their inquiries were costing them points.

The second type of inquiry is called a Soft Pull.  When you “shop for credit”, you are asking the sales people to pull your credit.  This is very dangerous as the more you have your credit pulled, the lower your score drops and it can be very significant.  The solution is to pull your own credit score and report from www.MyFICO.com and use that to shop with until you find the right loan for you then let them pull your credit scores. This way you can shop all day for as long as you like, months if you want and it won’t hurt your score one bit. When you pull your own credit scores it won’t cost you points either. That’s because it is called a soft pull. Soft pulls won’t cost you.

Anytime that you pull your own credit report or scores, the credit bureaus recognize that you are just looking over your own credit and it isn’t going to anyone that could use the report anyway so it is a soft pull and won’t cost points. Other companies can do a soft pull as well and see your credit and scores to be sure you still qualify for their special programs or offer you insurance rates, interest rates, etc. These inquiries can be in the hundreds and still not cost you any points.

There are 3 types of inquiries to know about as you look over your credit report. It’s important to understand them and how they affect your credit scores because they can affect your credit scores very seriously. I have seen a couples credit scores drop over 120 points because of “shopping for credit” and not realizing their inquiries were costing them points.

The first type of inquiry is one where you initiate the loan request. You fill out an application, or go to a store and they offer to sign you up for a store credit card processing and then will give you 10% or 20% or more off of your first purchase with them. Each of these is a hard pull inquiry and if more than 2 in a year will start to cost you points. There are many ways you might have a hard pull inquiry and not realize you are getting one. You might go into a auto dealership and ask about the financing of a car. Be sure that if they ask for your social security number, that they are going to pull your credit even if you don’t ask for them to do so… they will assume that since you gave them your social security number, that you authorized them to pull your credit. Boom, you just had a hard inquiry pull.

It’s not bad if that is what you wanted, but what if you go and look at autos from several dealerships and each pulls your credit? You just got hit with a hard inquiry from each dealership and your scores will be dropping as you go along.

There is an exception, as there always is… On the inquiry there is a place to put the type of inquiry that is being pulled. If the auto dealership, mortgage company, bank, credit union, etc, where you are applying for a loan fails to put the type of inquiry onto the inquiry pull, then this is where each credit pull will cost your credit score points. Another challenge to face is the type of scoring module they are using when pulling your credit. Because the credit bureaus have over 19 different scoring modules to choose from and the dealership, loan company or bank can choose which scoring module they will pay for, then the combination of error can be endless and very costly to you. How do you know? You don’t… you can ask but they won’t know which scoring module they are using because it is usually decided by someone at corporate headquarters and they don’t tell the sales people and don’t care anyway.