You’re asking different questions here. Are you asking about what happens to your credit whenever a hard check is hit on your credit?
As for redflags, you can be redflagged for opening and closing too many bank accounts. I haven’t been hit yet, but for example, I open/close a chase checking account for an easy $350 or so every 18 months. Haven’t been redflagged yet for churning these bank incentives (not MS related). To your question on how many until a redflag is placed under your name? That depends on the bank and I haven’t found clear quanitities.
As for credit cards, you can sign up or attempt to sign up for as many as you’d like without any redflags. Some creditors have limitations for the amount of their credit cards you can open to mitigate credit card churners. E.g. Chase has a 5/24 (any 5 credit cards opens opened within the last 24 months) limitations, while AMEX has a “one credit card bonus per card type only” limitation.
As for shops, there are some shops that would typically require your SSN for a hard check, but sometimes they’ll have their client block the applications from going through prior to the shop or have you utilize a fake SSN they designate. Otherwise, they make it clear before you accept the shop that you may take a hard check on your credit. If you’d like to know how hard checks can temporarily impact your credit, I can expand on that. The worry on how hard inquiries can impact your credit is overrated and misunderstood by the masses.
Oh yeah, and soft checks have no impact on your credit.
Shopping the Greater Denver Area, Colorado Springs and in-between in Colorado. 33 year old male and willing to travel!
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/07/2018 03:13PM by Tarantado.