Originally Posted by burgerwars
Too add, I applied for one Visa card last month, and was approved for a $15K credit line. I have a high FICO score (excess of 800) on my Experian record. The inquiry hit my Experian account, and my FICO went down four points. Negligible. Even though inquires stay for two years, I believe only inquiries that are less than one year old (it may be as low as six months), do ding your credit record.
When the credit line appeared on my credit record, my FICO didn't budge. It stayed four points lower.
That's my experience, but YMMV.
A question and a comment:
Is the "credit score" you (or anyone else) receives from Experian actually the same number that Experian would report to lenders as your FICO score at the same point in time? A while back, I got the impression that these numbers could vary (but probably not significantly).
For better or worse depending on your particular situation, last we knew, Citigroup was not reporting Diner's Club card activity to the credit agencies. See this thread:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=515495