Originally Posted by
PumpkinSmasher
It's just interesting how some banks care deeply about that and others don't at all. I don't even have a problem with them having their own algorithm, I just wish those parameters were made known a bit more. It would be nice to have at least a better idea.
Each bank not only has different parameters, they may adjust those parameters differently for different people. (Example: Citi cares about how many hard inquiries in 6 months, but whether 6 is the max or 7 or 8 or whatever depends on how they evaluate you. And even for you, it could change between last year and this year and change again next year!)
The banks are not interested in your predicting their parameters. They don't particular want you to churn at all. If you want to churn, you have to realize that you're doing something the banks would prefer you not do, and so they're not likely to help you with clear information.
Meanwhile, while crowd-sourced info may great, it only works well when the parameters don't change from person to person. When they do change from person to person, crowd-sourcing only works well with something tons of people do. But there aren't tons people apply at bank X after doing such-and-such applications in such-and-such a time period at such-and-such banks. The number of parameters is dizzying in that case, and pretty impossible to collect enough fine-grained datapoints (and then for someone to analyze them well) so that they are useful to others.
Please be aware, if you aren't already, that most of the benefits of AORs (App-o-Ramas, applying for lots of cars in a burst and then waiting months and then doing another burst) are dead. (Among other factors: Banks now see a hard pull from another bank within minutes! There's no longer a delay of a day or two, like there was a few years ago.) Most people feel it's better these days to space things out than to try to apply in bursts. If someone insists on continuing to apply in bursts, they'll have more and more resistance from banks yet fewer and fewer datapoints from other people doing the same thing (any more) to guide them.