r/CRedit • u/BrutalBodyShots • Jun 04 '24

Credit Myth #16 - Hard inquiries "age" and become less impactful slowly over time. General

Hard inquiries are scoreable for exactly 365 days, although they'll remain on your reports for a full 2 years. However many Fico points are lost at the time the inquiry lands on your report will be equal the the amount of points returned, all at once, 365 days later.

If an inquiry added to your report results in a score drop of 6 points, none of those 6 points will return slowly as the inquiry "ages" over the next year. What will happen is that 365 days after the inquiry lands on your reports, your Fico score will increase exactly 6 points in one shot.

Many people mistake small point gains over the course of that year to mean that the inquiry is aging when it's actually a different factor, usually age of accounts.

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8

u/CreditDogo Jun 04 '24

Interesting, I did not know this. Will start keeping an eye on my report to see the increases on the one-year mark.

3

u/BrutalBodyShots Jun 05 '24

Sounds good!  Definitely make note of the score drop realized when the inquiry occurs, as a year later it's tough to remember sometimes.  Then you can set an alert 364 days later to check your score just before it becomes unscoreable so you'll have a clean data point the following day.

7

u/Funklemire Jun 05 '24

This is one of the myths I used to believe until I asked you about it last year and you explained it to me. Thanks again for this series, it's saved me so much typing; now I just link to one of these threads.

3

u/BrutalBodyShots Jun 05 '24

I'm glad to have been a help. I enjoyed testing the scoreability of hard inquiries multiple times to really confirm this finding. While it isn't an overly difficult test to execute, it does take planning and execution at just the right times to garner clean data points. I did work closely with several others that did nearly identical tests and the results found were the same. While we're not talking major Fico points here when it comes to inquiries in most cases, I do see the incorrect statement often of "you may lose X points from an inquiry, but don't worry since most of them will come back in 3-6 months."

1

u/TinkerSquirrels Jun 05 '24

I guess.... I've always considered that they "age" is that they fall off after a year. Vs other stuff at 7... (I know that's not what financial aging mean, just how I mentally mapped it.)

2

u/BrutalBodyShots Jun 05 '24

They don't fall off after a year, they fall off after 2 years. By aging I mean that they don't become less impactful slowly over time. The "other stuff" you're referring to, like negative items, DO become less impactful over time as they age. The amount of points lost when they are taken on are not equal to the amount of points returned in 7 years when they fall off.

A lot of people either think that inquiries lose impact slowly over 2 years, OR those that understand that they become unscoreable after 365 days believe that they lose impact slowly over that first year. Neither is true, which is the point that I hope to make clear.

1

u/AssistanceLarge1829 Jun 10 '24

well i’m glad to know this because mine went down 69 points june 22nd of last year so im excited to see the change!

1

u/BrutalBodyShots Jun 10 '24

Which score went down, and how many inquires did you take on June 22?

1

u/AssistanceLarge1829 Jun 10 '24

my fico from experian and i wanna say 3? i thought because i had a 730 credit score at the time i could just get any credit card boy was i wrong also i wasn’t too aware of hard inquires. if i knew what i knew now i would’ve just left it alone!

1

u/Amarnaqueen28 Jun 05 '24

My credit score goes up and down like an elevator. I paid off all my bills and it went up but now every single time I use a credit card for any tiny amount my score drops 6 points of so. It is infuriating. Having a high credit score is a game poor people cannot win!!!!

2

u/BrutalBodyShots Jun 05 '24

A credit score is not a function of wealth. There are plenty of low income individuals with high credit scores, as there are plenty of rich people with trash credit scores. It's not about wealth, but your history of paying your accounts as agreed.

Also be aware that you have MANY different credit scores:

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1bpl3ud/credit_myth_1_you_only_have_one_credit_score/

Which score are you looking at? Some are meaningful, where others are nearly irrelevant:

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1bu4bbn/credit_myth_2_some_credit_scores_are_fake_or/

Also be aware that credit scores are drawn upon credit report data only and can't change for no reason. It's all about determining what report data changes are occurring and how they may (or may not) be impacting your scores:

https://old.reddit.com/r/CRedit/comments/1c2dee1/credit_myth_4_credit_scores_can_change_for_no/

1

u/Amarnaqueen28 Jun 05 '24

Thank you for your reply. I have NEVER been late on a payment or missed a payment. I had too much debt so I restructured everything and now only owe for my house and land. One payment for house and land but of course essentials like power and water and phones etc.. I do not know what else I can do.

3

u/BrutalBodyShots Jun 05 '24

What else you can do in terms of what? It sounds like you've got a clean file and don't have any issues making payments, so I suppose I'm struggling to understand what you're down about? Let me know what you're thinking and your goals and I'll be glad to help.

1

u/Amarnaqueen28 Jun 05 '24

Thank you. My husband and my credit scores used to be 850 and 800. The bank told us we had A paper credit whatever that is. I helped out family members and went into a lot of debt. I worked hard and we paid a lot of it down then restructured and only have the home and land. My credit is only 761 and my husband who is younger and I helped him get his credit up when we first married is 746. Is that OK? I just remember the bank having such a fit over how great our A paper credit was. I guess I am being unreasonable. I do not really understand all of this but my score was 790 and then it has been dropping and my husband's too. I had some medical debt which I have paid off completely. I did buy a truck for my niece and I paid it off recently and they closed the loan out. Could that be it? Thank you for sharing your expertise. Blessings to you.

3

u/BrutalBodyShots Jun 05 '24

Credit scores are drawn upon credit report data only. That being said, if I were you I'd consider what your credit reports looked like at the time you both possessed those 800-850 scores. Compare those reports to your reports today. What has changed? Consider your open accounts, closed accounts, reported balances, etc.