From: roger@crux.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig)
Subject: Re: Credit report
Originator: news@nimaster
Reply-To: roger@astro.princeton.edu (Roger Lustig)
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 14:53:38 GMT

In article <BRENNAN.92Sep7002254@yosemite.hal.com> brennan@hal.com (Dave Brennan) writes:
>A few years back I got denied credit, the reason being that there was too
>many inquiries for my credit report.  You can bet I requested my free copy.
>There were a bunch of inquiries generated because I had just moved (the
>apartment complex checked) and bought furniture on credit (90 days same as
>cash stuff -- maybe not worth it!).  But the other half of the inquires
>were from stupid credit card companies like American Express, Discover, and
>many others.  Isn't nice to know that these inquiries can have a negative
>impact on your credit.

Had you applied for credit with them?  Or did you have an existing account?
If not, such inquiries should not appear on the report; pre-screens and
the like should *not* appear as inquiries.

But it's true: a large number of inquiries is highly correlated with
future credit problems, which is why they check.  On the other hand,
people who have just relocated tend to be *good* credit risks, so it
tends to balance out.

>I got another copy of my credit report at the beginning of this year and it
>contained 4 requests from random credit card companies that surely sent me
>junk mail a short time later.  I was unable to decipher some entries that
>look like "AR ##########" where # represents a letter or digit.

Which bureau is this?  If you can't decipher something on their report,
they have to tell you.  Write and ask.  Include a highlighted copy.

>What kind of effect will my credit report have on getting a mortgage?  What

If inquiries are your only problem: none.  Zero.  Zip.  Mortgage brokers
care only about income, monthly payments to credit cards and loans and
the like, and delinquency history.  Inquiries mean nothing.

>can I do ahead of time to avoid problems?  

Assemble a 25% down payment.  8-)  (Seriously, when you have a big
down payment, they don't look at credit too hard.)

>My report is clean as far as
>account status goes, but I notice that all the accounts used for my 90 days
>same as cash purchases (3 total) are still listed as though they were
>available credit.  I got denied  a mere $500 overdraft protection from
>Nations Bank because they decided that I have too much available credit.

Won't affect most mortgages.  

>Since then I've cancelled a bunch of unecessary credit cards, but I need to
>make sure they get don't get listed as available credit.  

In general, this will make no difference.  Afterwards, you may want some
other credit, so what you're doing is a good idea, but don't worry too hard
about this.  Almost all mortgage folks ignore credit lines.

>(BTW, I still
>think that for 500 bucks Nations Bank was being a weenie in a big way.)

Hey, it's their policy, probably based on their experience.  Besides,
compared to the revenue a checking account generates, $500 is a fair
amount of exposure.  Also, they might  get stuck holding the bag if you
run up your credit cards, pay minimum payments for one more month with
your OD protection, and then go bankrupt.  That's their nightmare.  High
lines *can* (not necessarily, but possibly) mean bankruptcy risk, and with
bankruptcy being an ever-increasing source of credit loss (and bascially
an unrecoverable one), some banks are, well, conservative weenies.

In a big way.  8-)

Roger