How shopping for a loan or a better credit card rate can damage your credit report score

When you apply for a loan or a credit card the prospective lender requests a copy of your credit report from one or all of the major credit reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) this request is called a hard inquiry. The credit report score computer looks at the number of hard inquiries on your credit report, the dates they were made, and by whom these inquiries were made.

Some statistician has determined that people whose credit reports show a large number of hard inquires in a short period of time are more likely to file for bankruptcy or default on their financial obligations. As such, the credit report score computer whacks your credit report score by 5 or 10 points for every hard inquiry. Not many points – unless the hit to your credit report score drops you into a higher risk category. The credit agencies do not disclose how many is too many and how short is too short.

Fair Isaac tells us that its credit scoring algorithm can distinguish between a prospective creditor requesting your credit report with your permission (a hard inquiry) and a request made by a marketing company for a credit card solicitation, or the request you make when you get your annual credit report or your free credit report.

Fair Isaac also tells us that its algorithm can determine when you make several inquiries shopping for the best rate by the fact that only one additional account related to the inquiries is opened. Fair Isaac does not tell us the result if you decided to not go forward with the loan after having made the inquiries. We must play this game without the rule book.

How you can play the creditscoring game without a rule book..

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 and is filed under Fix My Credit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “How shopping for a loan or a better credit card rate can damage your credit report score”

  1. Why closing an account could damage your credit report score on April 9th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    [...] How shopping for a loan or a better credit card rate can damage your credit report score… Category: Fix My Credit Social Bookmarks: – (what´s this?) – spread the word! (more bookmarking services) [...]

  2. Why closing an account could damage your credit report score | How Can I Fix My Credit? on April 29th, 2009 at 3:44 pm

    [...] How shopping for a loan or a better credit card rate can damage your credit report score… Related Posts:Time your debts to improve your credit report scoreHow opening an account can improve your credit report scoreOne thing you can and must do to improve your credit report scoreHow much you owe affects your credit report scoreTwo things you can do today to raise you credit report score tomorrow Category: Fix My Credit Tags: credit report score calculation Social Bookmarks: – (what´s this?) – spread the word! (more bookmarking services) [...]

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