Top Law Schools

I'm looking at private loan lenders, and I'm trying to get an idea of the interest rates I'd be offered. Comparison sites have been helpful for researching min and max interest rates from various lenders, but I'd like to get actual rate quotes.

It seems like the only way I can compare rates is to fill out applications with multiple lenders and see what they offer, but won't that add a bunch of hard inquiries to my bureau?

Is there any way to compare rate quotes from multiple lenders without a bunch of hard bureau pulls?

helmsleyB wrote:I'm looking at private loan lenders, and I'm trying to get an idea of the interest rates I'd be offered. Comparison sites have been helpful for researching min and max interest rates from various lenders, but I'd like to get actual rate quotes.

It seems like the only way I can compare rates is to fill out applications with multiple lenders and see what they offer, but won't that add a bunch of hard inquiries to my bureau?

Is there any way to compare rate quotes from multiple lenders without a bunch of hard bureau pulls?

Multiple inquiries made within a week are treated as one inquiry- that allows loan shopping- as long as you do it all at once.

It seems like the only way I can compare rates is to fill out applications with multiple lenders and see what they offer

They can't give you anything more than a range until they pull your credit to determine your risk.

but won't that add a bunch of hard inquiries to my bureau?

Yes, but the inquiries don't get added until the end of the month, so if you fill out all your loan apps in say June, and sign on a loan that same month, the inquiries won't affect your score and thus the rate you get from the lender you select. This same advice holds true when shopping for a mortgage.

Additionally, inquiries only have a minor effect on credit score, so unless you're at the margins and barely qualify for credit in the first place, it shouldn't matter much. The phenomenon of obsessing over minor deviations in credit score originated in the subprime mortgage boom, when people of poor credit had to eek their way to a 620 or a 580 so they could qualify for whatever garbage loan terms mortgage brokers were slinging.

but won't that add a bunch of hard inquiries to my bureau?

Yes, but the inquiries don't get added until the end of the month, so if you fill out all your loan apps in say June, and sign on a loan that same month, the inquiries won't affect your score and thus the rate you get from the lender you select. This same advice holds true when shopping for a mortgage.

Additionally, inquiries only have a minor effect on credit score, so unless you're at the margins and barely qualify for credit in the first place, it shouldn't matter much. The phenomenon of obsessing over minor deviations in credit score originated in the subprime mortgage boom, when people of poor credit had to eek their way to a 620 or a 580 so they could qualify for whatever garbage loan terms mortgage brokers were slinging.[/quote]

This may be wrong but I read somewhere that unlike mortgages, inquiries for student loans are looked at separately. Meaning that each inquiry will count against your credit score immediately. From personal experience, I checked my credit score before I applied for private loans and it was mid-700s. After I got rate quotes from five banks, one of them reported my credit score back to me and it had dropped about 30 points. I'm not sure if the difference was due to their pulling the score from a different agency or due to the 5 applications.

I'm pretty sure they aggregate only those apps made within one week.

Just submit all of the applications within a 24 hour period and it will only count as one check into your credit.