Question about credit scores/mortgage app

[iteach]

I am shopping around for a mortgage lender. Each time I submit a pre-approval application they pull my credit, right? How does this affect my credit score? I seem to remember hearing somewhere that as long as all applications are done within a certain amount of time, all applications are counted as one. Is this correct? How long is my window of opportunity?
Thanks--Andy

[ThePennyMine]

That is not correct, they will not be seen as being one pull. However, with the new FICO 08 being in place, having your credit pulled more often will have a less negative impact on your score compared to what it would have previously.

[Thumper]

There's no conclusive evidence that all hard inquiries (the kind that occur when you request a review) in the same day will be counted as one.

I've personally experimented and found that each inquiry appears to have less of an impact, but it's not conclusive. The theory also depends upon each creditor requesting your report from the same credit bureau. There are three bureaus and there's no way to guarantee that they will pull the reports from the same source.

Your best bet is probably to focus on applying only to your top choices. Submit the applications as close to one another as is practical and see what happens. If they do count them as a single inquiry you'll protect your score and if they don't you've at least tried to minimize the impact.

[hermione]

We had the same concern when applying for a mortgage back in 2005 and spoke to a lender about trying to minimize the number of credit checks to get pre-approval and he gave us the following idea:

He told us to go to the Free Annual Credit Report website and do our free credit check, print it out and fax or email it to him. This way they could see our credit history and get an idea for whether they think we'd be pre-approved or not and if they liked what they saw and thought there was a good chance, then they'd go and do an actual credit check.

I don't know if all lenders would let you do this, but it might be worth asking.

Good luck.

[BobHall]

no, they are treated differently, the more you apply for affects the overall credit score.

to raise it, get one lot of line of credit, a small one, pay it off, 6 months after get another, a small one again, pay it off, then do another, gradually your credit score increases.

Good luck

Originally Posted by iteach

I am shopping around for a mortgage lender. Each time I submit a pre-approval application they pull my credit, right? How does this affect my credit score? I seem to remember hearing somewhere that as long as all applications are done within a certain amount of time, all applications are counted as one. Is this correct? How long is my window of opportunity?
Thanks--Andy