How bad does it hurt your credit

[braincramp]

I am in the process of buying a car. How much damage to my credit score will it do in checking different dealerships for prices and financing trying to get the best possible deal?

[Flamingo]

Several hard inquiries on your credit reports for mortgage inquiries and car loan inquiries are usually counted as one during I believe a two week period. So if you apply for financing for a vehicle or a home mortgage/refinancing, say to three different places during that period of time, it will only count as one inquiry. A check with one of the three Credit Reporting Agencies can give you the correct timeline for that period - I believe it is approximately two weeks.

[braincramp]

Thanks a lot!

[Logan]

Several hard inquiries on your credit reports for mortgage inquiries and car loan inquiries are usually counted as one during I believe a two week period. So if you apply for financing for a vehicle or a home mortgage/refinancing, say to three different places during that period of time, it will only count as one inquiry. A check with one of the three Credit Reporting Agencies can give you the correct timeline for that period - I believe it is approximately two weeks.

Credit inquiries for mortgage are definitely 30 days. I have no experience with auto loans.---Just googled it--according to MYFICO....

Does the formula treat all credit inquiries the same?
No. Research has indicated that the FICO score is more predictive when it treats loans that commonly involve rate-shopping, such as mortgage, auto and student loans, in a different way. For these types of loans, the FICO score ignores inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So, if you find a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won't affect your score while you're rate shopping. In addition, the score looks on your credit report for rate-shopping inquiries older than 30 days. If it finds some, it counts those inquiries that fall in a typical shopping period as just one inquiry when determining your score. For FICO scores calculated from older versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 14 day span. For FICO scores calculated from the newest versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 45 day span. Each lender chooses which version of the FICO scoring formula it wants the credit reporting agency to use to calculate your FICO score.

[nomoneynomore]

I know alot of people, especially lenders will tell you pulling your credit won't hurt it, BUT from personal experience, it hurt ours. We have purchased 3 vehicles since discharge & each time we shopped for vehicles & our credit was pulled 2 or 3 times through the dealer, our scores went down anywhere from 10-30 pts. We are currently looking for a house & one company farmed out our info to several lenders & our scores went down 7 pts from that.

This is just personal experience, but the results have been the same each time.

[Kuya]

Keep in mind that not ALL auto inquiries against your credit identify themselves to the bureaus as "auto loan". Capital One , for example hit all three bureaus. Only one did they pull as "Cap One Auto" on the other two, they pulled as "Cap One". This was the case with all of the banks that pulled my credit this week (buying a car). It was very random who identified themselves as auto inquiries rather than just credit.

I took about 5 hard pulls from each bureau this week. My Experian Vantage score dropped about 11 points. My TransFico dropped 7 points and my Trans EQ jumped 45 points LOL. It's a strange strange world.

[IBroke]

I wouldn't be too concerned. Inquiries are just a part of the business. I mean, if you want to avoid them, you mustn't apply for credit at all - which makes the hard work to improve your credit pointless.

If I need credit, I have to accept the inquiries - after a year, they don't affect your score any more. So unless you're planning on major applications more often than once a year, don't be too concerned.