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My wife and I are applying for a mortgage and I have been using a median score that I had run in April of this year. We are getting ready to lock in our rate, but speaking with one of the mortgage officers at a bank I trust, he mentioned that the hard credit pulls that are done by mortgage companies no longer affect the credit score. I had often heard that credit pulls will drop your score by a couple points, so I was planning on getting all the good faith estimates from banks within a week period so that multiple pulls do not drop my score more than a single hard pull would.

Is there anyway to verify that what he is saying is correct, that I don't have to be so conservative of banks pulling my credit score for a Mortgage Application?

Based on the following post, Will "rate shopping" affect my credit score?, it says within a short period of time. I had typically heard that was a week.

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    I bet he did. Now, ask him to put that in a letter, on his company letterhead and sign it. Won't happen. Multiple score requests within a week will count as one, as it represents one mortgage (as compared to me trying to get multiple credit cards or lines of credit.)
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica ♦
    Jul 25, 2013 at 17:31

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You can avoid the multiple hits against your credit score altogether by working with a mortgage broker. They perform a hard pull once and have access to dozens of lenders, most of which you have probably not heard of. A mortgage broker knows the lenders more intimately than you do and can most likely find you a better deal than you can find yourself. Since the mortgage broker is paid by the lender, there is no cost to you.

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It does. However, shopping around does not--the credit bureaus understand shopping around and count multiple pulls over a reasonably short period of time about a big-ticket item as one pull.

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  • Please provide a citation to back this up.
    – ChrisInEdmonton
    Oct 5, 2014 at 21:34
  • money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2014/07/24/… is one of many citations (and not one from one of the providers who have incentive to be less than truthful). This largely came about several years ago when the credit companies were ordered to provide consumers free access to their own reports and do so without hurting their scores.
    – dlb
    Sep 30, 2016 at 15:29
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There are multiple types of credit pulls. Banks are allowed to do an pull of a type they use for mortgage pre-qualifies which do not show and thus do not effect your score. They can see the score and any hits against it, but it does not record that they looked. These are effectively the same as when you access one of the free access portals to see your own credit report. When you actually apply for the loan however, that is reported. A single ping, no big deal. Multiple such inquires however look like you are shopping for a lender and being turned down and is a major red flag.

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Shopping for a mortgage loan absolutely MURDERED my credit score. I tried to limit some of the pulls in a 7 day period, but it didn't matter: my score dropped drastically.

Don't believe the notion that credit bureaus "know" when you're shopping for a mortgage and count multiple hits as one.

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  • If your institute did a full hard inquiry, it certainly shows and effects the score. Soft inquiries do not, and can/do happen even without your knowledge. All those pre-approved credit card offers and crap in the mail, all are generated via automated hits on your score without your knowledge or permission and set of computer triggers to send you bank offers. Some credit cards will now do a soft hit every time you log in of online or get a bill. None of those are even recorded. If you attempted to pre-qualify and the institute did a hard inquiry, you need to contest your report.
    – dlb
    Sep 30, 2016 at 15:21
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If a financial institution (mortgage/car dealership) pulls your credit, it does not lower your credit score. In the past, it use to, so that's why you've heard that.

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    Not true at all. Please provide a citation to this change in the FICO scoring.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica ♦
    Dec 10, 2013 at 23:35
  • @JoeTaxpayer and others, here is one of many explainations: money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2014/07/24/… If someone is shopping for mortages and it lowers their score, then they are having full or hard inquiries made. Pre-qualification should never do this, it should do the same soft inquiry that your personal "free" credit inquiries do and these are neither visible to others so cannot effect your score. If the institute is doing a hard inquiry, they are attempting to actually approve a loan, a very different thing.
    – dlb
    Sep 30, 2016 at 15:13
  • Understood. This answer said nothing about pre-qual or soft pull.
    – JTP - Apologise to Monica ♦
    Sep 30, 2016 at 16:10
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    @JoeTaxpayer Loan agents who do hard pulls while you are still shopping should be tarred and feathered. I had to go through lots of fights during my recent financing due to silly under-writer rules, but at least they did not try that game with me. Sadly, some will rope you into doing full applications instead of just running a pre-qual thinking that will lock you in with them.
    – dlb
    Oct 3, 2016 at 18:40
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Not true, it does lower your credit score by a lot, don't believe the hype on here, had it happen, NOT one thing changed on our credit score and we were in the high 750's now after four hard pulls from a morgage broker we are in the medium 600's. So yes it does..

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    Please provide a citation to back this up.
    – ChrisInEdmonton
    Oct 5, 2014 at 21:34
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    Yes it does drop your score by a couple points but NOT as huge of a drop as you say and not for each one you do. If you are mortgage shopping and you get checked, you enter a 60 day grace during which no more mortgage inquiries cost any more points because they know you are looking for a loan. It is done to prevent people from having their score murdered during a critical period that it is necessary to remain as high as possible. REF: FICO Credit Scoring Seminar open to a handful of industry experts.
    – GµårÐïåñ
    Oct 6, 2014 at 1:43

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