[mschuster91]

> Keep credit inquiries to the minimum necessary (an inquiry means you're asking for a loan, implying you don't have money).

This one should be outright banned, as it's effectively anticompetitive - there are thousands of banks on the planet, and it should be anyone's right to make an inquiry at each and every single bank to make sure one gets the best rates.

[tzs]

FICO considers hard inquiries (other than for credit card applications) within 45 days of each other to be just one hard inquiry.

[matwood]

Yes, but the reason they say to do all the inquires around the same time is b/c many inquires spread out is a negative signal. It can mean that banks are turning a borrower down for whatever reason so they are now looking for a bank to take on the risk.