Comments on: Credit Report Bumpage: Knocking Off Hard Inquiries

By: Sara

Sara — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:37:48 +0000

They are not hard inquiries. I just got a home loan in May and I was using Credit Karma for 5 months before my loan was finalized and no one ever asked about it. When I pulled my own credit it was listed under the “soft” inquires.

By: mikestreb

mikestreb — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 19:00:57 +0000

This is the single most frustrating part about credit scores. No one knows anything. The bureaus and Fair Issac (company that does the FICO score) have this so secretive, that know one really knows much of anything. Something that determines if you are able to buy a house/car/appliances should be much more transparent.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:06:32 +0000

Are you saying CreditKarma reports are hard inquiries?

I noticed a hard inquiry on there after using it for the first time yesterday. I don’t remember one on my credit report I pulled a month or so ago and don’t know of anything else that would have caused it.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:03:51 +0000

Hahha, very well put saladdin

By: Soccer9040

Soccer9040 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:02:21 +0000

I also use CreditKarma. Its free, it works, the ads are actually decent. Although I havnt tried any of them, they atleast appeal to me.

I just bought a house and compared my CreditKarma score to the score my bank ran. They were atleast in the ballpark, but there still is just too much left to chance on credit scores.

I had an error on mine once and I had to jump through so many hoops to get it fixed. And this was with the bank that caused the error helping to fix the problem. They wrote letters, submitted forms, did a conference call, and it still took forever.

If the credit agencies depend on the banks for credit info, then they should move just as fast to correct an error when the bank says ‘we made an error, now correct it’

I guess all you can do it keep paying the bills and being responsible and your score will stay high…maybe…

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:01:58 +0000

I use the credit score tracking tool at CreditKarma.com. It is supposed to be a soft inquiry. However when I was having prequalification done for a mortgage the letter from the bank said that I had too many inquiries. I have not applied for anything in quite a while so are lenders against these types of inquiries? Time to pull my credit report again.

By: mikestreb

mikestreb — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:23:30 +0000

I am also very curious of this. What is the magic number of inquiries before they start deleting the oldest?? I use CreditKarma and the credit monitoring from Discover Card. I used to use Prosper every month, but since they stopped letting people from Ohio do anything, they cut off the credit checking (all you do is act like you are putting up a loan listing and somewhere along the line, they do a soft inquiry and tell you what your credit looks like and where you should start your listing at – at least that is how they did it ‘back in the day’).

Anyone have any good solid info on this. I like the idea, but not a fan of the guessing game..

By: eric

eric — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:38:39 +0000

I’ve long heard of the app-o-rama but didn’t know about the bumpage hack. Interesting…

By: saladdin

saladdin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:39:17 +0000

That’s the real issue. No one knows because the formula is so top secret squirrel secure. What a crock that the one 3 digit code that decides your auto rates, housing insurance rates, home loans, car loans blah blah is decided in a more mysterious way then the hunt for a virgin in Las Vegas.

saladdin

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:43:57 +0000

Experian does not bump off ever, never mentioned in your article, and why did you not mention Credit Check Total which allows for daily pulls?

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:58:23 +0000

It’s generally believed that a hard inquiry’s impact on your score significantly decreases after six months and has no effect after twelve. They can remain on the report for as long as two years.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:37:50 +0000

What is the normal duration that a credit inquiry will appear on your report without bumpage? Do they expire on their own?

By: Jim

Jim — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:49:13 +0000

The ability to bump is hit or miss, but some have used it successfully and I’m not 100% sure where it stands at the moment. I figured I’d put the info out there and the experts would come and correct or affirm my post.

By: zapeta

zapeta — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:12:13 +0000

I’ve read about the AOR a few times but it wasn’t anything I ever considered doing. I didn’t know that you could bump hard inquiries off with the soft ones so that is very interesting.

By: BrianC

BrianC — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:34:48 +0000

Nice summary. I’ve done some mini-AORs, so I haven’t been that concerned with bumpage. I do use creditkarma, but again, more to see where my score is at as I pay off my CCs than for any other purpose.