Is it possible to check your credit too often? Many people in credit repair programs review their credit report and spot a listing of "too many inquiries" or some variation thereof.
In most cases, such a statement has little bearing on credit scores.
That is because there are two types of credit inquiries, soft and hard.
Soft inquiries occur when potential creditors check your credit before sending you an unsolicited offer of credit.
These inquiries have no impact on your credit rating.
Soft inquiries also occur when lenders conduct periodic reviews, or when you check your own credit.
However, hard inquiries do indeed have an impact on your credit score and occur primarily when you apply for new credit.
Too many attempts to obtain credit in too short a time frame can be seen by lenders as a warning sign of a person in financial distress.
However, there are types of purchases where frequently checking your credit may simply be an essential and routine part of the purchasing process.
For example, a person shopping for a car or a house may want to check their credit several times as they compare models of cars and types of houses to see if they have sufficient credit to buy them.
Therefore the Fair Isaac Corporation modified the FICO scoring model on behalf of consumers who shop for home mortgages and automobiles.
As a result of this FICO modification you may have as many mortgage or automobile inquiries as you wish in any forty-five day period and they only count as one inquiry for your credit score.
There is one special danger in checking your credit you should be alert for.
If you see a lender inquiry that you do not recognize this may indicate an attempt at identity theft.
Therefore it is unwise to ignore unrecognized lender inquiries.
Placing a call to the lender who checked your credit will determine if there has been an unauthorized attempt to obtain credit in your name.
A good credit repair program will identify the specific inquiries that are having an impact on your credit scores.
However in the early phases of your program credit repair efforts are best spent on more important issues.
However once the more glaring problems have been fixed, tracking down those suspicious inquiries should be undertaken.
In most cases, such a statement has little bearing on credit scores.
That is because there are two types of credit inquiries, soft and hard.
Soft inquiries occur when potential creditors check your credit before sending you an unsolicited offer of credit.
These inquiries have no impact on your credit rating.
Soft inquiries also occur when lenders conduct periodic reviews, or when you check your own credit.
However, hard inquiries do indeed have an impact on your credit score and occur primarily when you apply for new credit.
Too many attempts to obtain credit in too short a time frame can be seen by lenders as a warning sign of a person in financial distress.
However, there are types of purchases where frequently checking your credit may simply be an essential and routine part of the purchasing process.
For example, a person shopping for a car or a house may want to check their credit several times as they compare models of cars and types of houses to see if they have sufficient credit to buy them.
Therefore the Fair Isaac Corporation modified the FICO scoring model on behalf of consumers who shop for home mortgages and automobiles.
As a result of this FICO modification you may have as many mortgage or automobile inquiries as you wish in any forty-five day period and they only count as one inquiry for your credit score.
There is one special danger in checking your credit you should be alert for.
If you see a lender inquiry that you do not recognize this may indicate an attempt at identity theft.
Therefore it is unwise to ignore unrecognized lender inquiries.
Placing a call to the lender who checked your credit will determine if there has been an unauthorized attempt to obtain credit in your name.
A good credit repair program will identify the specific inquiries that are having an impact on your credit scores.
However in the early phases of your program credit repair efforts are best spent on more important issues.
However once the more glaring problems have been fixed, tracking down those suspicious inquiries should be undertaken.