Do Inquiries Hurt Your Credit?

By Author: Jennifer Baxt
Total Articles: 200
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This is a very common question with credit, and many people do not realize that inquiries can hurt your credit. It is a sad irony that the more you inquire about getting the credit, the worse your credit gets. Simply put, if you go to a variety of lenders to get credit, that shows up on your credit report. Since inquiries make up 10 percent of your credit report, that lowers your credit score and hurts your chances of getting credit in the future.

Those that do not know inquiries hurt your credit will continue to try and get credit, without realizing that their credit is slowly getting worse with each inquiry. Eventually, they will have seriously damaged their credit because they did not research their credit score first.

Here is an example of how inquiries can damage your credit. If someone goes to get a credit card, they need to apply for that credit. However, since the person did not order their credit report, they do not know that they have poor credit. Therefore, when they apply for the credit, they are refused. With that refusal, their credit goes down as a result. Thinking that it was the lender that refused ...
... them and not the credit reporting agency, they go and try to get a credit card elsewhere. Only to have the same result. They repeat this process before finally realizing that they may not be able to get a credit card. Sadly, the damage is already done. If the inquiry drops their credit score by 15 points each time, then by the time they have applied for credit five times, they have lost 75 points on their credit score. That is enough to send someone from excellent credit of 700, to fair credit at 625.

How could all this be avoided? Simply put, it could be avoided by not applying for credit without first checking one's credit report. The credit report is very important in the fight to maintain your credit. The credit report you see is the same credit report that your lender will see. Therefore, if you see your credit report and see a low score, then don't try and get credit. Concentrate on fixing your credit, rather than hurting it by inquiring too much. It is important to remember as well, that you do not hurt your credit when you look at your credit report, only when you apply for credit. The reason is that you look like a compulsive borrower, which is what many credit card companies do not want to lend money to.

If you have a credit score of 650 and over, then you will have no problem getting credit and should not be refused under any circumstances. If you have a credit score of 600 to 650, you should be fine for getting credit still and won't have to be worried. However, with a credit score of 599 and lower, you may have difficulties, so it might be better to just try and repair your credit, rather than try and get more credit.