The reason people are often told not to run their credit is to avoid excessive credit runs called "inquiries" diminishing their credit scores. It is possible to lose points temporarily from having excessive credit inquiries, but the key word here is "excessive" credit runs. Credit bureaus track the last ninety days of inquiries to determine if a credit fraud is being perpetrated against or even by someone. As the number of credit inquiries grows the credit score drops temporarily to limit credit availability and ward off fraud. You will not lose any points during normal shopping for a loan, car, credit card or mortgage unless you really go overboard with the shopping. The exact number of inquiries allowed every ninety days before scores drop is not clear as credit grading formulas vary by bureau and the bureaus also keep their grading formulas a trade secret. But, talking to a few legitimate companies while you're shopping and allowing them to give you accurate quotes by running your credit will make no difference in your credit.

Since many people don't know how many inquiries are too many they avoid credit running entirely and subsequently hamper a company's ability to deliver an accurate quote. Unethical salespeople will attempt to prevent clients from shopping for better deals by insisting that they have stop additional credit inquiries even if the client has had no other credit inquiries recently. These people perpetuate an innaccurate picture of when to run or not to run credit.

It should be cautioned that if you have already been shopping and had a few companies run your credit or have shopped for several types of transactions during the last ninety days you could begin losing points as you increase the number inquiries. Be smart and keep track, but if you're not in double digit credit runs in the last ninety days keep your options open.

A safe bet is to verify who you're working with by looking them up in various internet or phone directories or asking for a state or federal license number before allowing them to run your credit. License numbers should be available for the asking.

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