Q&A: How long should I wait to get a credit check for a mortgage after I just refinanced my vehicle?

Question by christina s: How long should I wait to get a credit check for a mortgage after I just refinanced my vehicle?
I’m a first time home buyer who is beginning to shop around for a mortgage. I have a very good credit score (780), but just had my credit checked last week for a vehicle refinance. How long should I wait before I approach a lender, who will run another credit check on me?

Best answer:

Answer by Bob C
Today would be fine.

If you credit score is 780, the inquiry will not affect you much. Many banks will do up to 100% financing with a 680 credit score.

The real problem would be if you needed a 680 credit score to qualify for the mortgage and you currently had a 681 score. The inquiry could actually lower you score enough so that you wouldn’t qualify or wouldn’t qualify for the best rate.

Finally, you can have your credit pulled by as many mortgage companies as you want as long as they are all pulled in a close amount of time. My record was seeing this was one prospect that had his credit pulled 216 times by mortgage companies in less than 10 days. Because all inquires were done in a 10 day period, they all counted as one inquiry.

The logic behind this is as follows: if you apply for 20 credit cards, you could potentially get 20 credit cards. Therefore, this would counts as 20 inquiries. However, if you shop 20 mortgage companies, the odds are that you are comparing banks to get one mortgage. Therefore you are only “charged” for one inquiry.

What do you think? Answer below!