It will only count as one inquiry for purposes of calculating your credit score and applying for an auto loan but when applying for other types of loans like a credit card, line of credit, or mortgage, multiple hard inquiries from an auto loan can cause you to be denied.
A dealership checking your credit score is a soft inquiry and won't affect your credit. Any hard credit check triggered by a loan application will appear on your credit report, shaving points from your credit score.
There's no strict amount of hard inquiries that's too few or too many, especially considering the credit scoring models' rules for rate shopping. For example, if you're buying a new car, you might apply for auto loans from your bank and with online lenders.
A single hard inquiry will drop your score by no more than five points. Often no points are subtracted.
There's no such thing as “too many” hard credit inquiries, but multiple applications for new credit accounts within a short time frame may point to a risky borrower. Rate shopping for a particular loan, however, may be treated as a single inquiry and have minimal impact on your creditworthiness.
Car Dealership Background Checks
This can help dealerships protect themselves and their customers from financial harm. So what kind of background checks DO car dealerships do? Typically, they conduct criminal records search, driving history, credit report, and employment history.
You cannot remove legitimate hard inquiries from your credit report. Fortunately, hard inquiries have a minimal impact on your credit, and they fall off your credit report after two years. If your credit report contains a hard inquiry that you don't recognize, you have the right to dispute it.
What does a car dealership see when they run your credit? When they run your credit, they get a report and credit score from one or more credit reporting agencies. This will help them gauge the risk of granting you car financing.
But keep in mind that there are other credit-scoring companies and models, like VantageScore®, that a lender could use. A hard inquiry typically only causes credit scores to drop by about five points, according to FICO. And if you have a good credit history, the impact may be even less.
Still, you typically need a good credit score of 661 or higher to qualify for an auto loan. About 69% of retail vehicle financing is for borrowers with credit scores of 661 or higher, according to Experian. Meanwhile, low-credit borrowers with scores of 600 or lower accounted for only 14% of auto loans.
Hard inquiries serve as a timeline of when you have applied for new credit and may stay on your credit report for two years, although they typically only affect your credit scores for one year.
You should wait as long as possible between credit pulls. However, a good rule of thumb is to wait at least 90 days. A hard credit pull remains on your credit report for up to two years. 2 You can make soft credit pulls as frequently as you'd like without affecting your credit score.
Dealerships can, and will, check with multiple lenders to see what rates and terms they'll offer you. If your credit isn't great, multiple inquiries may be necessary to find you a loan. The good news is that multiple auto loan inquiries in a two-day span won't hurt your credit that much or for that long.
A hard inquiry could lower your scores by a few points, or it may have a negligible effect on your scores. In most cases, a single hard inquiry is unlikely to play a huge role in whether you're approved for a new card or loan.
When you use an auto loan to buy a car, your credit score will likely take a slight hit due to the increase in your debt load and the hard inquiry that results when the lender checks your credit. Thankfully, the credit score should only dip a few points temporarily.
When a car dealership offers pre-approval for a bad credit auto loan, then they will be making a soft pull on your credit score. This means getting pre-approved for credit does not affect your credit score.
A down payment may help you to more easily qualify for an auto loan, especially if you have lower credit scores. Without a down payment, the lender has more to lose if you don't repay the loan and they need to repossess and sell the car. Cars can begin losing value as soon as you drive off the lot.
Your FICO score is a representation of your credit worthiness. FICO offers specific products and solutions for car dealers and auto loans. Their product is called Auto Score 8. As you can see here from FICO's promotional materials, Auto Score 8 is meant to help dealers, “Improve accuracy and speed of decision making.
Car shoppers looking for the best deal on their auto loan might face a dilemma. Filling out several loan applications can lead to multiple hard credit inquiries, which can affect personal credit scores, potentially impacting a car shopper's future financial opportunities.
Fraudulent hard inquiries can happen for many reasons, ranging from simple mistakes to outright identity theft. In these cases, you can remove hard inquiries by contacting the creditor who issued the inquiry as well as all three credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
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.
While not always required, your recent bank statements can help the dealership both verify your current residency and income. You might use them to show newer or less common income sources that aren't reported on pay stubs or your last tax documents.
Poor credit is a common reason for being denied a car loan, and it can be frustrating. However, some lenders, called subprime lenders, specialize in working with tough credit situations, and can often help you get a bad credit car loan.