“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.

Credit Scores are important to track because of the need to know where you are before you go looking for a loan for your new home or a new car. Once you establish your lines of credit, credit cards and mortgage, car loan or student loan, don’t disturb the flow of things. The history is more important.

As you go along, it would be good to check it once a year to see how things are going but if you need to watch it more often, say if you are working on correcting problems on your credit report or need to watch it improve for a specific reason, like wanting to buy a new home and you need a specific credit score, then getting a monitoring service might be a good idea. Remember that you can pull your credit reports free once a year from http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com. But to get your credit score will require you to pay for a service. We recommend http://www.MyFICO.com because they are the more accurate for a consumer credit score. All others are “simulated credit scores” and seem to get a credit score that is higher than what you would get if you went shopping for a loan. It doesn’t make sense unless you consider that they are trying to make you feel good. But that doesn’t make sense when you find out that your score isn’t any good. So, it must be for money and the greedy nature of big business. It’s not really a service at all.

However, MyFICO.com is from the Fair Isaac Corporation who developed the credit scoring system and their credit scores are accurate. You can get a credit score from just 2 of the credit bureaus for about 20% less if you google search “myfico coupon”.  Cost would be around $22 for the 2 scores.  Unfortunately, Experian thinks they are too good for FICO and won’t let you get the score through them anymore.