I often write about the advantage of signing up for two cards from one bank on the same day. When you do so, the credit inquiries usually combine into one. In that way, the inquiry’s small negative hit to your credit score is reduced.
In the past, when I’ve applied for Chase business and personal cards on the same day, the credit inquiries were combined. In all cases (for me), Chase made 2 separate inquiries to both Experian and TransUnion, but only one inquiry remained long-term on each credit report. Meanwhile, Doctor of Credit has previously reported that Chase personal and business inquiries do not get combined. And a couple of readers have told me that their same-day inquiries from Chase have not been combined. It appears that the credit bureaus are inconsistent regarding this.
Do you remember when I reported applying for both the United 75K personal offer and the Ink Plus 60K business card offer on the same day? As a reminder – the United application was approved after a recon call, but the Ink application was still pending after two recon calls. Today, I’ve already received my signup bonus for the United card and I’m still waiting for a decision on the Ink card.
Meanwhile, I checked my credit reports…
Experian
Alerts from my free ProtectMyID account (thanks to my AAA membership) show only one recent inquiry on my Experian credit report. The free Experian App on my iPhone reports the same thing. Only one Chase inquiry was incurred on June 3rd. After sorting by date, you can see that there was one inquiry in June and one in March (when I signed up for both the personal and business Marriott cards):
TransUnion
Using CreditKarma, I can see my TransUnion and Equifax credit reports. No Chase inquires were reported on my Equifax report (ever), but two same-day inquiries from Chase are on my TransUnion report:
On Mach 9th, when I signed up for a personal and business card on the same day, the inquiries combined into one.
Conclusion
It is pretty weird that Chase inquiries made to my TransUnion report did not combine this time despite the fact that they always have in the past. Meanwhile, my Experian report shows just one inquiry, as I expected.
What to make of this? Life is like a box of chocolates…
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