I bought a 2nd car last month and did a LOT of shopping around, both with dealers and with financing. I have heard before that if you call and ask a CRA they will lump them all together if they are with a thirty-day timeframe. Exp and TU only had one or two, but EQ has the lump of the inquries. Here is my activity for the month of August: 08/30/2002 Chase Automotive 08/29/2002 EU-First American Credco 08/26/2002 Equifax-Auto MTNC Update 08/07/2002 PRM ONL-Lending Tree 08/07/2002 Peoplefirst Finance 08/07/2002 People First/Capital One 08/07/2002 Transouth #06428049 08/07/2002 Roadloans.Com/DBA Triad 08/04/2002 Citifinancial/Associates Now other than the Equifax Auto-MTNC update and the PRM ONL-Lending Tree; I've got 7 hard inquiries on my report. Since this, I have joined EQ's CW and pulled for the last twenty days, but bumpage is still a while away. I was just turned down for Amex Blue, I have one charged off credit card, two credit cards with no negative history for 5 and 3 years respectively, and no collection activity. The primary reason I was denied was excessive inquiries. My questions are: A) 08/29/2002 EU-First American Credco; What is EU on an inquiry? Is is hard, soft, etc? B) If I call EQ, is it possible that they will consolidate these inquiries for the last month into one that states "auto purchase" or something to show only one? I've heard rumors that they will. C) Should I call Amex and ask them to reevaluate my Blue application? My credit report consists of: a perfect pay lease from 98, a perfect paid car loan paid off last month. I have Discover for 5 years with perfect pay, Chase for 2 years with perfect pay. I could tell them about the car purchase and explain that the charged off credit card from a year ago is under dispute. I would really like to get a third revolving tradeline reporting again. Thanks in advance for your knowledge. No response from validation or estoppel on that charge-off. I'm sending another dispute in with CRRR copies.
I can't answer all your questions, but here's some input. You may have already done this, but if not, go to CW and pull up your score. On the score page, click the link for inquiries and see how many FICO is counting them as. A couple of months ago I had a few from car loan shopping but the system automatically lumped them together. I can't remember if it was over a 14 day or a 30 day period, but they were definitely not counting them as individual inquiries. (When I started getting bumpage on them my # of inqs went UP at first because somehow it "unlumped" them during the process.) Checking this page will let you know how you stand for sure and if they are being counted separately, I would definitely call EQ. As for Amex reconsideration, it sure couldn't hurt to call and explain the situation and see if they might reconsider. If not, your best bet might be to go ahead and apply for the green or gold card (while your chargeoff on EQ is still in dispute would be best) and have an Amex product to get started with. The green seems to be the easiest to get and having a foot in the door is always helpful. Often after 6 months or so of a good pay history they offer other products preapproved. Amex will allow you to be approved for an open card and a revolving card at the same time (it is two inquiries but they are handled separately) but they generally won't approve 2 revolving applications at the same time. So you shouldn't have to wait at all to apply for the gold or green, just check out the inquiry situation first to see if a call to EQ might be in order first. Hope this helps. DemPooches
Just double checked my score power inquiry section as suggested. Obviously, they are not lumping anything together. 08/30/2002 CHASEAU CR 08/07/2002 PEOPLE 1ST 08/07/2002 PEOPLEFIRS 08/07/2002 AFSCI 08/07/2002 ROADLOANS 08/04/2002 CITIF-ASSO Guess that answers my question about the EU-First American Credco. The EU notation must be a soft. I still have 6 for a month, and 5 from three days. Think I should call?
I'd call. Who knows, maybe they can do something to make the "combiner" kick in for you. It sure doesn't seem like it could hurt. Let us know what happens. DemPooches
Good luck - my experience, each inquiry counts, as well as insurance inquiries, which they assure us do not. Liar liar pants on fire! It's credit industry "spin" and all depends on the type of software the lender is using. Most don't use the newer software that codes the inquiries differently.
