Answers to how credit inquiries affect your FICO score
 

From FICO's website:

How much will credit inquiries affect my score?
The impact from applying for credit will vary from person to person based on their unique credit histories. In general, credit inquiries have a small impact on one's FICO score. For most people, one additional credit inquiry will take less than five points off their FICO score. For perspective, the full range for FICO scores is 300-850. Inquiries can have a greater impact if you have few accounts or a short credit history. Large numbers of inquiries also mean greater risk. Statistically, people with six inquiries or more on their credit reports can be up to eight times more likely to declare bankruptcy than people with no inquiries on their reports. While inquiries often can play a part in assessing risk, they play a minor part. Much more important factors for your score are how timely you pay your bills and your overall debt burden as indicated on your credit report.

How long do inquiries stay on my credit report?
Inquiries remain on your credit report for two years, although FICO® scores only consider inquiries from the last 12 months. FICO scores do a good job of distinguishing between a search for many new credit accounts and rate shopping for one new account.

The amounts of points your score is going to drop as a result of an inquiry varies from person to person.

It will have a noticeable impact on your score for months 1-6.

For monthy 7-12 it will have a minimal effect.

For months 13-24 it will remain on your credit report and will still be visible when lendors pull your report but it will no longer impact your score.

After the end of the 2nd year it will fall off your report completely.

Haha you beat me to it. Well done

very solid info guy would love to buy a property around end of next year so want to make sure score stays above 740 at least. Unless until someone offers a 200,000 mile credit offer that would be def. worth it

A Few Inqs Aren't Most Important

I just track on Credit Karma which is TransUnion but my 2 Chase, 2 AmEx and 2 Citi cards in the past 6 months haven't made a dent. It seems like a very temporary 2 pt. hit each according to Credit Karma. My score actually went up some with the last 2 as my utilization % decreased. However, if I get a another right away it says I'll take a 9 pt. hit. So maybe there's something to the one-a-month rule.

Remember, the required spend shows on your report as debt until the billing cycle turns over and spends can raise your utilization %. That hurts a lot. Last month I dropped my alleged utilization from 30% to 20% and my score jumped 20 points. However, taking it below 20% doesn't help any additional. (Also Credit Karma excludes for utilization purposes cards that don't report credit lines, which I think is Citibank).

If you have a big interest in the implications of multiple credit apps go over to http://www.creditboards.com and look at their forums. Those guys spend as much time studying the subtle nuances of multiple credit apps as guys around here spend studying fare rules to to work out the best mileage run. It seems the consensus over there is that the hard inquiry hurts slightly for 6 months or so but stops hurting long before it drops off in 2 years. New accounts also impact your average account age. People with long established histories are not impacted much. People with shorter histories can be impacted significantly. Score wise, having more credit available is always good.

At least in NY, Chase and Amex use Experian, and Citi uses Equifax, so creditkarma's score, which pulls from TU won't show these INQs and therefore won't drop the score. The drop you're probably seeing stems from the average age decreasing. That's why I like applying for Amex cards - all the cards take the opening year as that of your oldest card with them.

Remember, the required spend shows on your report as debt until the billing cycle turns over and spends can raise your utilization %. That hurts a lot

The way I get around this is as soon as I get my new card, I send a check of $1500 (or whatever the minimum spend is) to the credit card. Then, I have a credit balance (which is reported as zero on credit reports) which will not affect my utilization.

I wouldn't get too worked up if not planning to apply for a loan soon, but I might be and I really wanted the 30K from the Starwood Amex....:)

I tried that on AmEx Starwood online but they wouldn't take any payment until there was an first initial payment due on the card. My statement just closed and I immediately paid off the $1000 but I bet it shows as debt for a month. It would be nice to pay these spends in advance so no debt shows on credit report for anytime.

tassojunior: Yes, other people on this board have also posted problems payng online before the close of the first statement. I said I phoned them for the payment address and wrote a check instead of doing it online:)

You are right that if you pay right after your statement closes it will probably show up as utilization, but this will go away after 30 days so if you aren't applying a loan during that one month don't sweat it!;)

Off to apply for the AA 75K visa!

I was actually thinking about this problem and was about to start a thread...but this saves me that privilege. I have a credit score according to Credit Karma (which, as others have said, doesn't show all inquiries; in fact, mine shows only one, while my Experian report shows 9) of 775. My score according to Citi's identity monitor is 758. Decent scores, by any stretch. However, I've been denied for several credit cards, all of which cite "too many inquiries" or thereabouts as the reason for denial. I got accepted for the Amex AA 75k card but denied for the Visa and Visa business ones. I'm not going to press the issue, as I've decided I need to take a break from new apps, but has anyone else with good credit been denied new credit cards for inquiries?

Your last update doesn't make sense. Checking accounts have nothing to do with credit score, and checking account info, including balances, aren't even reported to any bureaus. For credit cards and loans, etc., the money isn't yours and you need to be trusted to pay it back, if you don't - the bank issuing the credit loses money. This is why we have the credit scoring system - so the banks have a consistent formula they can use to determine risk. For checking accounts, money there is already yours to do what you want with and the bank isn't losing anything, therefore, its unnecessary for them to need any sort of credit score.

Yes, my neighbor with excellent credit just got refused for the Citi card because the email said she had too many inquiries. The only other ones she had were the United Chase in April and the 2 AmEx Starwoods in July. I guess the 2 SPG's cut into Citi's 2-in-60 rule.

You are assuming the FICO is the be all, end all factor. It is far from that.

Transferring large sum of money between checking accounts give an impression to the bank that you are juggling the money for some purposes (usually to cover some soon become due debt), or someone other than you is providing the down payment for the loan...

When you apply a mortgage, the banks would want to see your last 2 years pay stub, the current pay stub, may be the last 2 years bank statements, plus your last 2 years tax returns... None of such would be reported to credit bureau. Based on your assumption, banks should not need to examine those documentations... It is exactly WHY the banks got into big time trouble and dragged the whole country into financial crisis resulting a recession - that they used to take "Liar's" loans - loans without support of documentations but with "Stated" Income only. Now they are going back to approve loans the old fashion ways with even more scrutiny than necessary.

There are a myriad of things the loan officers look into when approving a mortgage, especially in current environment. FICO is just the First Line cut-off. Anything above 730 to 750 seems make no difference in determining the rate you would get. However it does not mean you would get automatic approval of a mortgage.

Well this happens with almost every creditor. I've had this happen with Amex and Citi too.