Rate Shopping

Multiple lenders may request your credit report when you are shopping for a mortgage or an auto loan, even though you are only looking for one loan.

FICO counts multiple auto or mortgage inquiries in any 14 day period as just one inquiry so that you are not penalized. Further, FICO disregards all mortgage and auto inquiries made in the 30 day prior to scoring. What this means is if you find a loan within 30 days, your score won't be affected while you are rate shopping.