Credit inquiries

If you are car shopping how long do credit inquiries stay on your credit report?
And I just don't understand why that is such a detriment. If you are shopping for a good rate isn't is expected that you may inquire with a few places in order to secure the best rate possible? Why do creditors think that's some kind of red flag?

Well, the impact of credit inquiries on a credit report is relatively negligible as compared to the other derogatory factors. FICO doesn't give much importance to inquiries made against your report in determining score. But if you have too many inquiries made by high risk and high rate lenders within a short period it would imply that you are desperate for loan.

Now, one can not say for sure how long exactly an inquiry would stay on the report but on an average it may stay for two years.

You may read the following blog post to learn more about this issue.

http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com...credit-report/

I just got a denial letter from one creditor on a car loan, and they said that one of the reasons was due to too many inquiries.

The only things I recently tried to do get financed on a cheap used car in July @ one used car place - they could not get me financed. I've heard it is sometimes easier to get financed on a new car, so this month I went to one place, revealed all my credit challenges & asked if they thought financing was remotely possible. They said sure - but the denial letter is a result of their inquiry.

If these are the only two things I tried to get credit on within the past year or so, how is that such a bad thing? How does that make me appear desperate to a lender? It's not like I visited 10 places, one right after the other, all within a month or two.