Shopping is encouraged?

Let's discuss the myth of "don't pull my credit too many times or my score will drop!" This is a fear that many of us have. I think we are afraid that if I have more than two lenders pull my credit that my score will drop 100 points. Actually this is NOT true. The credit bureau's actually encourage shopping and they have built into their scorring formula to allow for this. When your shoppng for a mortgage or an auto loan The credit bureau's give you approx 14 days to have your credit reviewed muliple times and as long as you secure your financing within 30 days after the 14 they will only count as 1 inquiry. There is a great website to education yourself about credit, goto http://www.myfico.com/. Inquiries that will hurt your score bigtime would be applying for multiple types of credit within a short period of time. for example applying for credit cards, financing furniture, applying for a sears, dillards & citi/shell gas card. these types of inquiries can do significant damage to your score. Try to plan ahead before you refi and don't have any inquiries for approx 60 to 90 days prior to shopping.