Excessive inquiries to your credit can drastically reduce your credit score, although certain types of inquires don’t affect it at all.  You need to know which types negatively affect your credit, so you can keep them to a minimum in order to ensure optimal credit scores on a consistent basis.

The Hard Inquiry

When you fill out a credit application you authorize a bank, credit card company or lender to view your credit history. This is known as a hard inquiry and is done with “permissible purpose”.

Collection agencies may also pull a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries can take points from your credit score.  Many hard inquiries are also viewed negatively by creditors and can be used as a reason to deny you credit. Read More→