When do additional credit inquiries NOT hurt your credit score?

[Trevor Levine]

A lender told me that if I let several banks/lenders pull my credit within a short timeframe (like 14-21 days), it won't hurt my score anymore than if there was just one credit inquiry. But they weren't sure of the timeframe. Do you know what it is? 

[Bob Reinhard]

So ...

"Your current rate shopping period is limited to 30 days.  If you want to shop around for interest rates, you should only start the process when you’re actually ready to open an account. The reason? You’re only protected by the FICO rate shopping period for a specified amount of time. 

"When a lender pulls your credit report, the score they receive will not factor in any related inquiries from the last 30 days. If you’re rate shopping your third mortgage lender this month, they will see a score that doesn’t factor in the other two mortgage applications. As long as it’s the same type of application activity and all within the last 30 days, your score is protected.  As long as it’s the same type of application activity and all within the last 30 days, your score is protected. 

"However, this doesn’t apply to other credit product applications. If you’re shopping for a mortgage lender, for instance, the FICO score they receive will factor in that new credit card application you submitted last week.


"Your past rate shopping periods range from 14-45 days.  According to FICO, there are three different rate shopping periods that your past inquiries can fall under. They are 45 days, 30 days, and 14 days; these time frames will count for inquiries not made in the last month, but were still from a time when you were rate shopping. The time period that applies to your score depends on the scoring model your lender uses when they pull your credit. 

"Lenders choose which scoring model they use when pulling your credit; there’s many different types of scoring models, and they all differ in their rate shopping period calculations. Unless you know which model your lender prefers, you have no way of knowing beforehand which rate shopping period you’ll be allotted."