Consumer complaint received 2015-09-23
Company: EQUIFAX, INC.
State: MN
Product: Credit reporting
Issue: Credit reporting company's investigation
Sub-issue: Inadequate help over the phone

Complaint:
I was shopping around for a mortgage refinance XX/XX/2015. I asked XXXX lenders to pull my credit and provide me with my refinance options. I did this within 30 days of each other. 
Eight months, I logged into my XXXX account and my credit had gone from XXXX to XXXX -- nearly XXXX points. This was the only potentially adverse instance on my credit report. I had no other credit inquiries, late payments or varying credit usages. 
I should be protected and able to shop around for credit products. My main question is what is the mechanism for protecting consumers? Is it the ability for lenders to REMOVE hard inquiries? Or is it the ability of the credit bureaus to NOT allow multiple inquiries to adversely affect my score? 
I talked to XXXX and they said I had to talk to the Credit Bureaus. " We have nothing to do with my score -- only the inquiries. " I then talked to Equifax on the phone and they said " You have to get the LENDERS to remove the hard inquiries. '' Even after reading the below passage verbatim to the Equifax manager, he still said that I have to get the lender to remove it. 

" Can shopping for a loan have an effect on my credit? 
UPDATED XX/XX/XXXXHere 's the bottom line : Any change to your credit score from shopping will be a minor price to pay for getting the best deal on a car, mortgage, or student loan. If you have a great credit history, shopping around may have no impact on your credit score at all. And even if your credit history is less than stellar, the impact from shopping around for a loan is likely to shave off between XXXX points. On a typical credit score of around XXXX that 's not likely to affect you much, especially when you compare that to the XXXX dollars you could save by finding a better interest rate on a loan. 
For specific types of loans -- auto, mortgage, and student loans - credit scoring models are also designed to take shopping for a loan into account. Let 's say you are looking around for an auto loan and you authorize XXXX lenders to check your credit score. All those credit checks -- the industry calls them " inquiries '' - should either count as XXXX inquiry, if the inquiries are made in a short period such as fourteen days. If you shop for a mortgage loan at the same time you are shopping for an auto loan, the shopping you do for those XXXX loans should count as XXXX inquiries. 
Tip : When you apply for a loan and the lender checks your credit, a credit score is created for the lender. According to XXXX major credit scoring company, any inquiries that took place in the 30 days prior to that scoring will not affect your credit score. So it 's a good idea to do your loan shopping in a timely manner. 
The rules on inquiries are different if you are applying for new credit cards. Credit scoring companies consider consumers who apply for several new credit lines in a short period of time to be a higher risk and they adjust credit scores accordingly. " I THEN spoke to the CFPB and they were completely unable to help explain how I was ACTUALLY PROTECTED or what I should do in order to raise my score. Again, do I push for the lender to REMOVE the inquiries? Or do I push the credit bureaus to count them only as XXXX INQUIRY? All they said was that I could sue if I needed to!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation