my highest is 21
 

I've had 21 in two years with experian and still got my approvals

Interesting data point. Thx.

But I'm curious what your FICO and length of credit history/credit utilization are? What do you think are most important criteria for being successfully approved? Income/payment history/credit utilization/number of hard pulls?

How quickly does one's FICO rebound? And what causes one's FICO to rebound after, say, getting 12 cards in 2 months? Just effects of credit aging?

Also, I only see 7 hard pulls to get those 12 cards. Do some credit pulls take longer to be reported? or if not reported quickly, they never will?

My non-scientific but extensive research would indicate it's ordered this way:
Payment History
Income
Score (which is a large part utilization)
# Hard Pulls
EXCEPT for US Bank where, due to their risk forumla, hard pulls is at the top.

Keep in mind that the effect of inquiries is apparently non-linear, in both time and quantity.

In other words, for a given FICO starting point, and considering ONLY the effect of inquiries, the first inquiry has some effect, the next few have a STRONG effect, then after that the effect is weak or non-existent. In essence, you've zeroed out the contribution to score that having no inquiries gives you, so there's no where lower for it to go.

In time, inquiries are strongest up to 3 months, then still quite strong to 6 months, then by 1 year they are not a scoring factor. In addition, the effect is usually stronger the higher your starting FICO score is.

HOWEVER, the new trade lines themselves negatively affect other factors in the score, in particular Average Age of Accounts and Time Since New Credit. Those things only recover with time. You'll note that AAoA can be buffered by having many trade lines reporting. In other words, if you have 10 cards and add another, that will have less effect on the average than if you have 1 card and add a second.

If the pulls happen on the same day from exactly the same dept/branch of the issuer, they will be combined on the report. Also, most issuers only pull from one bureau for each inquiry.

b* only sort of works for TransUnion any more -- the pulls will appear to drop off your report, but they're actually still there, and anyone taking a look at your report will see them. Probably doesn't matter if you get an instant approval, but something to be aware of.

Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.

Experian® Hard Inquiries: 12
Equifax® Hard Inquiries: 0
Transunion® Hard Inquiries: 5

Would you like to tell us how B* only sort of works for TU one more time? I dropped 7 hard pulls in the last 30 days.

Do you know for a fact that you started at 12? Just because there's 12 on Experian doesn't mean they were ever reported to TU.

B* is on Equifax NOT Experian. What are you even talking about? Why would anything on Experian be mixed up with TU? Only on rare occassions due creditors pull more than one report. Example: Crapital One, Bank of America.

It seemed like you were justifying the statement you made that 7 had dropped, based on the quote right above it. I did the math on what you quoted: 12 inquiries displayed on Experian, 5 on TU. 12-5 = 7.

Nothing you actually quoted proved that B* was working. Thus my confusion.

The way to show it would be to quote what it showed at the beginning, then show it again at the end with all of the soft inquiries also listed.

That's what a credit reporting service says, right? Take a look at your actual credit report and I bet you'll see a bunch of inquiries that are 'bumped' but still there. The reason I said 'sort of' is that all the services will say that they're bumped, but they still appear on your actual credit report.

I pulled my EQ report last week. ZERO inquiries.

*B still exists. I recommend you visit some legit credit websites and don't rely on everything you read here.

Heck, I pulled my EQ today for through backdoor. Look for yourself.
_____

Equifax Credit Report ™ for CALIPSO
Report As of: 12/12/2012
Available until: 01/11/2013 - Report Does Not Update
Confirmation #:NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS
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Inquiries A request for your credit history is called an inquiry. Inquiries remain on your credit report for two years. There are two types of inquires - those that may impact your credit rating and those that do not.

Inquiries that do not impact your credit rating
These inquires include requests from employers, companies making promotional offers and your own requests to check your credit. These inquiries are only viewable by you.

Company Information Date of Inquiry
PRM-CAPITAL ONE 07/12/12, 06/07/12, 05/11/12
AR-CITIBANK NA 06/19/12
AR-CITI CARDS CBNA 10/26/12, 09/28/12, 08/31/12, 08/10/12, 06/29/12, 05/25/12, 04/27/12, 02/24/12, 01/27/12, 12/30/11
PRM-CITIZENS/RBS 06/20/12, 04/06/12, 02/02/12
CREDITEXPERT 1-866-673-0140 12/12/12, 12/11/12, 12/10/12, 12/09/12, 12/08/12, 12/06/12, 12/05/12, 12/04/12, 12/03/12, 12/02/12, 12/01/12, 11/30/12, 11/29/12, 11/28/12, 11/27/12, 11/26/12, 11/25/12, 11/24/12, 11/23/12, 11/22/12, 11/21/12, 11/20/12, 11/19/12, 11/18/12, 11/13/12, 11/12/12, 11/11/12, 11/10/12, 11/09/12, 11/08/12, 11/07/12, 11/06/12, 11/05/12, 11/04/12, 11/03/12, 11/02/12, 11/01/12, 10/31/12, 10/30/12, 10/29/12, 10/28/12, 10/27/12, 10/26/12, 10/25/12, 10/24/12, 10/23/12, 10/22/12, 10/21/12, 10/20/12, 10/19/12, 10/09/12, 10/08/12, 10/07/12, 10/06/12, 10/05/12, 10/04/12, 10/03/12, 10/02/12, 10/01/12, 09/30/12, 09/29/12, 09/27/12, 09/26/12, 09/25/12, 09/24/12, 09/23/12, 09/22/12, 09/21/12, 09/20/12, 09/19/12, 09/18/12, 09/17/12, 09/16/12, 09/15/12, 09/14/12, 09/13/12, 09/12/12, 09/11/12, 09/10/12, 09/09/12, 09/08/12, 09/07/12, 09/06/12, 09/05/12, 09/04/12
ND-DIGITAL FEDERAL CREDIT UNION 11/27/12, 10/23/12, 09/25/12, 09/18/12
EQUIFAX INFO SVCS. 07/16/12
EQUIFAX 12/12/12, 07/22/12, 07/16/12, 06/18/12
ND-EQUIFAX 12/12/12, 07/22/12, 07/16/12, 06/18/12
ND-EQUIFAX 07/16/12
EQUIFAX INFO SVCS. 07/22/12, 07/22/12, 07/22/12
EQUIFAX INFORMATION SVS 09/05/12, 07/05/12
EQUIFAX INFO SVCS. 07/16/12

And a follow-up:

Account Age
Usually, it is a good idea to keep your oldest credit account open, as a high average account age generally demonstrates stability to lenders. Also, especially if you have been managing credit for a short time, opening many new accounts will lower your average account age and may have a negative impact.

Length of Credit History 11 Years, 2 Months
Average Account Age 4 Years, 7 Months
Oldest Account CHASE BANK USA, NA (Opened 10/01/2001)
Most Recent Account BARCLAYS BANK DELAWA (Opened 08/20/2012)

Inquiries - Requests for your Credit History
Numerous inquires on your credit file for new credit may cause you to appear risky to lenders, so it is usually better to only seek new credit when you need it. Typically, lenders distinguish between inquiries for a single loan and many new loans in part by the length of time over which the inquiries occur. So, when rate shopping for a loan it's a good idea to do it within a focused period of time.

Inquiries in the Last 2 Years 0
Most Recent Inquiry N/A

Potentially Negative Information
Late payments, collections and public records can have a negative impact on your credit standing. The more severe and recent they are, the more negative the potential impact might be.

Public Records 0
Negative Accounts 0
Collections


I had 7 hard pulls as of October 2012. I have zero now.

As I wrote earlier, I was specifically singling out TU. I'm well aware that *B still works just fine on EQ (having done it myself quite recently). For the record, all my *B/*C info comes from the fico and creditboards, not here.

I'm curious, though, since it looks like you're not getting chopped. Did you avoid that by never pulling from Equifax or did you just get lucky?

I only use USAA's puller. It took some time but worth it. Most people getting chopped were using three daily pullers including EQ's own.

Last time I checked there was only one or two TU pullers. Not even worth trying.....especially since not many lenders actually pull from TU.

Navy Federal and Chase pulled from TU once in the last two/three years. Barclay's uses TU for Mass residents it seems. Crapital One pulls all of em. I can't find any value in trying to B* Transunion. Equifax is a whole different ball game.

Hard Pull Inquiry Clock
 

Another poster wrote in a thread that he thinks (hard) credit pulls fall off your report the first day of the 25th month after the pull occurred. If that truly is the case, we all should be planning our App-O-Ramas a bit differently, applying just after the first of the month -- once three months since the last App-O-Rama have passed.

Is it true that a pull doesn't fall off until the first day of the 25th month after the pull occurred?

If so, I would assume that applies to all time period considered, so that if a credit card issuer were considering the number of pulls in the previous 12 months, pulls wouldn't fall off until the first day of the 13 month after the pull occurred. Anyone know if this is the case?

Edit. Misread the post.