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

FAQs

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

The impact of a single hard inquiry is relatively small, usually dinging your FICO^® Score five points or less. You can gain those points back over just a few months' time, however, with positive credit habits such as paying down debt and making all your payments on time.

In general, credit inquiries have a small impact on your FICO Scores. For most people, one additional credit inquiry will take less than five points off their FICO Scores. 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.

Checking your own credit report or score won't affect your credit scores. It's an example of a soft inquiry—a request for credit info that does not affect credit scores. Experian, TransUnion and Equifax now offer all U.S. consumers free weekly credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.com.

If you applied for a credit card or are shopping around for a loan, a hard inquiry can appear on your credit report, which temporarily lower a score. Hard inquiries happen when a lender or company reviews your report with the intent to make a lending decision.

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.

Each hard inquiry can cause your credit score to drop by a few points. There's no such thing as “too many” hard inquiries, but multiple credit inquiries within a short window of time can suggest that you might be a risky borrower.

How Many Points Does a Hard Inquiry Affect Your Credit Score? A single hard inquiry will drop your score by no more than five points. Often no points are subtracted. However, multiple hard inquiries can deplete your score by as much as 10 points each time they happen.

Even just one missed or late payment can negatively impact your credit score, so it's important to keep on track with your payments. Your credit score is always under scrutiny, so you should always aim to make your payments in full and on time every month.

Why did your new mortgage drop your credit score by 100 points? Your new mortgage can cause your score to drop because it's a new account and likely a significant debt added to your credit history. Once you establish a positive payment history, your score will likely increase.

Card issuers pull your credit report when you apply for a new credit card because they want to see how much of a risk you pose before lending you a line of credit. This credit check is called a hard inquiry, or “hard pull,” and temporarily lowers your credit score a few points.

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

Using more of your credit card balance than usual — even if you pay on time — can reduce your score until a new, lower balance is reported the following month. Closed accounts and lower credit limits can also result in lower scores even if your payment behavior has not changed.

For a score with a range between 300 and 850, a credit score of 700 or above is generally considered good. A score of 800 or above on the same range is considered to be excellent. Most consumers have credit scores that fall between 600 and 750.

When your score is 750, you're in a strong position to qualify for most financial products and get among the very best rates on them. A 750 credit score is considered excellent on commonly used FICO and VantageScore scales, which range from 300 to 850.

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

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.

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.

Ninety percent of U.S. lenders use FICO scores, but some lenders also use VantageScore models. VantageScore models look at multiple hard inquiries a bit differently. “Any hard inquiries that occur within 14 days of each other are considered one inquiry for scoring purposes,” Ulzheimer says.

Lenders and credit scoring models consider how many hard inquiries you have on your credit reports because applications for new credit increase the risk a borrower poses. One or two hard inquiries accrued during the normal course of applying for loans or credit cards can have an almost negligible effect on your credit.

A hard inquiry typically only causes credit scores to drop by about five points, according to FICO.