I checked my FICO score before applying for a loan, and it was 688. After the inquiry it wend to 682. That is a 6 point drop for 1 inquiry.
WOW! If that's the case, I'd jump about 275 points by getting rid of all my inquiries. That would put me up around 900 or so, and that's not all that logical since that's about the top and I'm not that close to being that good yet. I'll bet that's not a truly linear answer.
I think it depends on a few things. They seem to be weighted by how many in the past month, how many in the past 6 months, how many in the past year.
I think the "cost" of an inquiry on one's score depends not only on the number of inquiries already existing on one's report, but also the general condition of one's credit. I very strongly suspect that the worse one's credit is, the more points are deducted for each inquiry made. (I recall from an old post that one person had calculated a 10 point loss for an inquiry.) I hope to be able to validate (no pun intended) my theory in the next week or so, when a some disputed inquiries are hopefully going to be removed from my report.
I wasn't saying this was a rule, but it is what just happened to me. I have no negative on my reports, but my mortgage, home improvement loan, and 1 cc are all less than a year old. And I have few inquiries over the past 6 months.
The Other - I know you weren't saying it was a rule, rather it was just your experience. I appreciate what you said. What I was trying to say, perhaps inartfully, is that like with every other component of FICO, it seems like the values assigned to certain of the variables that make up the FICO scoring model can change based on one's overall credit picture, and thus you can end up with a scenario wherein one inquiry "costs" one person 6 points, and another 10 points. This problem could, of course, be solved if the lovely people at Fair, Isaac would meaningfully and fully disclose to consumers how their scores are derived. Now, knowing that will never happen, we have to rely on anecdotal evidence - like that posted on this board by folks like you and me - to try and get a handle on how these scoring models actually work. Best of luck to you.
Sorry I misinterpreted your post This inquiry weighting has me very fearful of inquiries. Everything I have read says is makes up only a small portion of your score. However, I think it is a large portion for some people.
The Other - I agree with you. I, too, am afraid that inquiries are highly damaging, much more so that we are being led to believe. I wish we could get some solid info on EXACTLY how these scoring models work and how we can legitimately and legally increase our scores. Too bad that won't happen without a legislative - and probably court-ordered -intervention. Oh well, we'll just have to do the best we can I guess!
According to this site (Silverstone Mortgage Inc.) Â "Every time someone does a credit check (inquiry) on you, five points are subtracted from your FICO score." http://www.silverstoneinc.com/things.htm
When we applied for a loan at our credit union last week, she told us before she pulled the Equifax report that it would deduct 3 points from our score.
