Loans

No. When a mortgage lender pulls your credit and then "shops" for a loan program for you, a reference number is assigned to the credit report that is pulled. That same reference number is used each time the lender runs your file through the various investors. Therefore, it counts as only one inquiry and does not affect your credit score. Why Credit Inquiries Reduce Credit Scores

Credit inquiries reduce credit scores because statistical studies show that multiple inquiries are associated with high risk of default. Distressed borrowers often contact many lenders hoping to find one who will approve them.

But multiple inquiries can also result from applicants shopping for the best deal, as indicated by the following letter.

"You keep preaching about the need to shop for the best deal, but I'm afraid that shopping will hurt my credit. I'm told that the more times lenders check on my credit, the worse my credit is going to be. Is that true?"

Credit inquiries will not significantly impact your credit rating if you do all your shopping in a short period. Since the market can change from day to day, this is the only effective way to shop anyway.

To avoid catching shoppers in their net, credit scorers ignore auto and mortgage inquiries that occur within 30 days of a score date. Suppose I shop a lender on May 30, for example, and the lender has my credit scored that day. Even if I had shopped 50 other lenders in May and they had all checked my credit, none of those inquiries would affect my credit score on May 30.

Inquiries from April and back 11 months would, however, be counted on May 30. To avoid biasing the credit score from earlier shopping episodes, the scorers treat all credit inquiries that occur within a 14-day period as a single inquiry. If you shopped 50 lenders during April 1-14, they would count as one inquiry. If you spread them over April 1-28, they would count as two inquiries. You will damage your credit only if you spread your shopping over many months, which makes little sense in any case.

[Recently, the 14-day rule was extended to 45 days in a new version of the FICO scoring system. However, lenders can choose whether they want to use the old version using 14 days, or the new version using 45 days. For a borrower, it is best to assume that the 14 day rule is operative.]

Circumstances can cause a consumer to shop, drop out of the market, and return later when conditions are more favorable. You minimize the adverse effect on your credit score by concentrating each shopping episode to 14 days or less.

You can remove these inquires with free letters found at http://www.removemycreditinquiries.org
Only Inquiries From Credit Grantors Count

Consumers should not be concerned about inquiries they make, such as ordering a credit report. Self inquiries don't affect the credit score. Neither do inquiries from your existing creditors, potential employers, or businesses considering whether or not to solicit you. The only inquiries that affect credit score are those by new credit grantors who you have explicitly authorized to check your credit.

Yeah, there are companies that handle that. First thing is see what your credit score is. If it's above 500, you should be able to get something. Below that, it's a really rough call.

Some Quality tools for identifying and monitoring process variability are:

1. Cause-and-effect diagram (also called Ishikawa or fishbone chart): Identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem and sorts ideas into useful categories.
2. Check sheet: A structured, prepared form for collecting and analyzing data; a generic tool that can be adapted for a wide variety of purposes.
3. Control charts: Graphs used to study how a process changes over time.
4. Histogram: The most commonly used graph for showing frequency distributions, or how often each different value in a set of data occurs.
5. Pareto chart: Shows on a bar graph which factors are more significant.
6. Scatter diagram: Graphs pairs of numerical data, one variable on each axis, to look for a relationship.
7. Stratification: A technique that separates data gathered from a variety of sources so that patterns can be seen (some lists replace "stratification" with "flowchart" or "run chart")

"Thousands of Americans are losing their homes because of mistakes in their Hardship Letters; Don't let your family be one of them!"

Writing hardship letters does not have to be difficult, but you need to know what your lender is looking for. Many homeowners simply do not understand the basics of writing an effective hardship letter and this is costing them their homes.

This letter is one that is written to a bank or financial institution to explain a person's financial troubles and to ask that creditor for a remediation plan in order to keep a home from being repossessed for non-payment. In fact think of a financial hardship letter as an attorney for the defense as you plead your case to the bank's loss mitigator and explain why you should be allowed to stay in your home.

2. Brevity - Don't let your financial hardship letter go on for page after page. Keep it as short as possible.

3. Personal - Let the loss mitigator get to know you and your circumstances.

4. Clarity - Get your points across in the clearest possible way and then provide a summary.

5. Information - Make sure you leave nothing out of your financial hardship letter. Attach important information such as bank statements, cash flow documents, income tax statements, letters of reference, etc.

6. Be Appreciative - The person reading this financial hardship letter did not get you into this mess but he or she is the one that can help you out of it. So be thankful and humble in your tone.

The hardship letter is not the only tool in your chest for a financial reprieve but it is by far one of the most important. So make it your prime instrument when dealing with the bank and get it in soon.