I PFB'd Experian and openly asked them how long hard inquiries hurt your score. They answered me. "Generally, Inquiries will only affect your Experian credit risk score for 6 months. They will, however, remain on an Experian consumer credit report for 2 years." I hope Nave sees this post for use in his FAQ section. I checked out his FAQ and could not find this question being asked. Equifax (CW) and Trans Union both say that hard inquiries affect the score for 1 year. Of course they also remain on the EQ and TU reports for 2 years.
I'm not sure how accurate that is. I mean, the CRAs say alot of things... I know when I had a few hard inquiries drop after two years it bumped up my score by around 10 points. I really can't see why this would happen if hard inquiries only affect scores for 6 months or a year. I have two that will drop this month on experian, so we'll see if there is any difference in my score from Sept and my score from Oct.
I believe what the rep meant was that when someone reviews your credit they look at the last 6months. They would be more concerned by the recent credit u have applied for.
I just had 7 hard inquiries drop from my score due to bumpage. Only one of them was less than 6 mojnths. The rest were within the last 12 months. My score gained 16 points. I don't think I could have gained 16 points from just one hard inquiry being dropped. But then, their credit manager page on CE only shows inquiries from the last 6 months.
What they are saying is that the Experian Risk Score will take into account the inquiries in the last six months. It states that in the Credit Expert site somewhere when you order your report or order credit expert it is no mystery... while the Experian Fico score will use a year... All fico scores consider the past 12 months of inquiries including Experian Tu and equifax this is why sometimes the experian credit expert score it higher than the real fico... kev
Yes I will add this in about the Experian score... There is information in the FAQ on inquiries affecting FICO scoring for a period of 1 year - http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/creditscoring/present/sld033.htm KustomKat is correct, that the Experian score information from the Credit Expert Website (which SHOULD refer to the Experian Risk Score - though there is the FAKO vs FICO argument) had this information somewhere (I believe I remember reading it there), so I will try and find it to back up this "6 month" claim before adding it to the FAQ, but If I can not find it I will still post this information since it is directly from an Experian rep (just wish I could trust them that's all . This was about the only thing I could find on the Experian website... The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires Experian to retain all inquiries for a minimum of one year. Inquiries made for employment purposes must remain for two years. For that reason, Experian can't delete inquiries at your request. Don't be overly concerned about inquiries that are more than six months old. Recent inquiries, usually within one or two months, indicate potential new debt. That unknown amount concerns creditors. Within six months, an associated account should appear on your credit history. If not, the inquiry didn't result in additional debt and creditors don't have to worry about it. So it seems to back up your "6 month" answer. -Peace, Dave
Thank you all for your responses. The reason I PFB'd Experian is that 2 months ago the subject of inquiries came up and no one could answer the question of how long do they hurt. But without making a fool out of myself here, our CE scores each rose 10 points for deletion of 5 inquiries. The trouble is that the deletions all took place on the same day due to Doc's trick. Some of the inquiries were under 6 months and some were greater. So if people noticed they were getting score increases on CE due to the deletion of old inquiries then either the CE score is fake or Experian lied to me. I don't know what to say. Maybe I should take back this thread. That word "generally" really bothers me. Nave - you might put the question about inquiries into the FAQ and just say that we have been unable to resolve the matter. The evidence appears to be "BLah Blah Blah but we don't really know".
