How Many Points Does an Inquiry Drop Your Credit Score? - Experian (2024)

FAQs

How Many Points Does an Inquiry Drop Your Credit Score? - Experian? ›

Quick Answer

How do hard inquiries impact your credit score? A hard credit inquiry could lower your credit score by as much as 10 points, though in many cases, the damage probably won't be that significant. As FICO explains, “For most people, one additional credit inquiry will take less than five points off their FICO Scores.”

Reasons why your credit score could have dropped include a missing or late payment, a recent application for new credit, running up a large credit card balance or closing a credit card.

From missed payments to maxed-out credit cards, there are a number of reasons you may see your credit score plummet 100 points fast. It's sometimes easy to overlook the impact just one late payment can have on your overall score. Even the smallest mistake can have lasting credit consequences.

If you obtain your own credit report or check your credit score using a credit monitoring service such as Experian's, that will generate a soft inquiry on your credit report. But, as with other soft inquiries, monitoring your own credit scores cannot hurt your credit scores.

For most people, increasing a credit score by 100 points in a month isn't going to happen. But if you pay your bills on time, eliminate your consumer debt, don't run large balances on your cards and maintain a mix of both consumer and secured borrowing, an increase in your credit could happen within months.

If you apply for several credit cards within a short period of time, multiple inquiries will appear on your report. Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most Credit Scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto, mortgage or student loan lenders within a short period of time.

Your Experian score may be higher than what another credit bureau shows because Experian calculates credit scores using its own unique scoring model.

What is classed as a bad credit score? When it comes to your Experian Credit Score, 561–720 is classed as Poor and 0–560 is considered Very Poor. Though remember, your credit score isn't fixed.

Why is my credit score going down if I pay everything on time? ›

It's possible that you could see your credit scores drop after fulfilling your payment obligations on a loan or credit card debt. Paying off debt might lower your credit scores if removing the debt affects certain factors like your credit mix, the length of your credit history or your credit utilization ratio.

Credit scores from the three main bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) are considered accurate. The accuracy of the scores depends on the accuracy of the information provided to them by lenders and creditors.

When the scores are significantly different across bureaus, it is likely the underlying data in the credit bureaus is different and thus driving that observed score difference.

Focus on building your credit score

Unfortunately, there are no secret ways to remove hard inquiries from your credit report unless they are there in error.

Removing a hard inquiry can raise your credit score if it's recent, but it may have no impact at all. While hard inquiries stay on your credit report for around two years, they only affect your score for about six months to a year. So, removing a hard inquiry over a year old may not raise your score.

Since hard inquiries affect your credit score and what is found may even affect approval, you might be wondering: How many inquiries is too many? The answer differs from lender to lender, but most consider six total inquiries on a report at one time to be too many to gain approval for an additional credit card or loan.

Often no points are subtracted. However, multiple hard inquiries can deplete your score by as much as 10 points each time they happen. People with six or more recent hard inquiries are eight times as likely to file for bankruptcy than those with none.

Credit scores can drop due to a variety of reasons, including late or missed payments, changes to your credit utilization rate, a change in your credit mix, closing older accounts (which may shorten your length of credit history overall), or applying for new credit accounts.

Since hard inquiries affect your credit score and what is found may even affect approval, you might be wondering: How many inquiries is too many? The answer differs from lender to lender, but most consider six total inquiries on a report at one time to be too many to gain approval for an additional credit card or loan.

“An unexpected 20-point drop in your credit score is something to take seriously,” Cohen said. “This can be a red flag for all kinds of problems, including unauthorized hard inquiries, credit reporting mistakes, identity theft, etc. You should investigate, never ignore, an unexpected drop of more than a few points.”