Hi All
Is your credit score effected by having a mortgage company or bank access your file to determine if you qualify for a loan?
In shopping around for a mortgage refinance my credit score dropped 60 points from 680 to 620.
A loan officer told me to many inquirers to your file will drop your score.
I had only 3 lenders check my score.
Its seems I was penalized for shopping for a better rate.
Anyone ever have this problem? Anyone know how the credit scoring companys work in general? Thanks,

Joe Moon

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joe moon/95Benzman

I believe that the loan officer was correct, however, I have no details on the mechanics of how this works. In fact, I don't know if anyone, other than the credit reporting companies, who would have inside knowledge of the algorithm used to calculate the score.

Maybe someone on the forum has worked for one of them...............??

Generally speaking an inquiry will drop your score about 2 points. By shopping for a mortgage you have indicated that you intend to take on more debt thus making you less credit worthy. That is probably why your score has dropped. It's screwy but that's how it works.

You are asking a tough question because I get many answers from credit agencies. The credit agency rep told me that there is a 15 day grace period on credit scores because people do shop unfortunatly this does not seem to be the case. If you go to a bank your credit is pulled and if your loan is brokered the broker will accept the report that the bank pulled, if you go to a non bank lender they will send your loan to 10 wholesalers and each of them will pull you report and you will get pounded. Multiple report pulling has been a trick for brokers to push people into sub prime lending and something does need to be done about it.

When you do shop for a loan get a copy of your first credit report and score give the lenders your score and a copy of your report to use and when they supply you with a good faith estimate based on the criteria you provided then let them pull their own credit report....if needed.

I do work for a bank and can loan in all 50 states and the virgin islands and would be glad to help you out...free of charge if you would like. send me a PM and we can chat.

Brokers are OK if you are savvy but most people should rely on banks because banks have to adhere to respa requirements.

That is very dependent on the length of credit history, a 21 year old will get pounded for 2 inquiries while it barely affects old folks like us with a strong credit history.

It's all black magic and smoke and mirrors to me. I had a case in which a woman with the best credit I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot) went from a 790 to a 690 based on one disputed $200 credit card charge. The CRA's (actually beacon, fair Isaac) won't tell how they score so anyones guess is as good as mine.

I have tried in the past to Google the formulas from which credit scores are derived. Apparently they are proprietary as I have found NOTHING. This is rare as usually somebody will publish an academic analysis or some such. Is the algorithm a secret? Anybody know?

B

and a guess is all it is, I have another $200 example for you and its personal. Wifey's credit score hovers around the mid 700's but a $200 limit gas credit card that was at the almost max mark at the time a report was pulled her score dropped to the high 600's and when the card was paid off the rescore was even higher than her 700 something score the month before and that is with over $100K in unused unsecured credit. OTOH even with CC's at the max my score is barely affected. It's witchcraft IMO, I think an enterprising lawyer could make a good living suing on these inconsistencies.

My best advice to Benzman is either fix the inquiries or let time go by to season the inquiries or go FHA which does no use credit scores for criteria.

a person can sue for damages if they do not get a loan based on credit scoring inaccuracies.

Yes it is a secret, Experian and Equifax offer "simulators" but they are smoke and mirrors I tested one once and it proved that the simulator is just a java program to charge people for.

fair credit reporting act, I do those.

You should advertise it like personal injury or drunk driving, I can't find a lawyer around here to take it on. I can think of millions of dollars in deals lost off the top of my head due to inaccuracies and not enough timing to cure the credit report.

Many deals are weighed on highest and best offer and sellers usually are not sympathetic to people that have credit credit problem....real or not.

I have a good website to pm you but I'm on your ignore list or something.

you have to dispute the innacuracy first. If you lose a deal because the seller pulls your credit and it's bad because of an inaccuracy there is no CRA liability. However, if you disputed it before hand and lose out or pay a higher rate, that's a good case.

Problem with advertising for these is the drek you get between the good cases. I've got a couple buddies that do BK's that screen for the good ones.

Evidently I didn't have PM enabled. Fixed now