Access to view your credit report should never be considered a negative ?

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Q. Does anyone know or care to comment on how credit report *inquires* affect FICO scores? It seems absurd that inquires be used at all in scoring. Say you obtain your credit report and this very act generates an inquiry. You find there is missing or incorrect data and over the course of several months fix and request reports. Then out of habit request reports on a monthly basis. But by making several requests/inquires, this would count against you. Why should it? Access to view your credit report should never be considered a negative. In another case, someone attempts to fraudulently apply for credit in your name. This generates an inquiry. Say they are not successful at obtaining a credit card, but yet the inquiry remains. Yet in another case, one or several of your credit lenders generates an inquiry to increase your credit limit or wants to review your credit history. Again, another inquiry. So...how do all of these inquiries affect your FICO score? If you're applying for a home loan, this score can mean a lot. Not only is it used for qualification, but a higher score may require less down or give you a better type of loan in some other way. This isn't right. Finally, if I can't calculate my FICO score, or any other score for that matter, by looking at my own credit report, how can this score be used to determine if I can get a loan or not. This is liking going to college, obtaining good letter grades but not know how to calculate your GPA.

A. And, in fact, it is not. Inquiries that you make about your own credit report do not count. Inquiries that the credit bureau itself makes (in the process of investigating an error) do not count. "Annual review" inquiries--inquiries made by businesses that you already have accounts with, for the purpose of deciding what to do with those accounts--do not count. "Promotional" inquiries--where the company says "Sell us a mailing list of 10000 people who meet these criteria", without requesting specific individuals--do not count. These sorts of inquiries don't even show up on the credit reports that potential creditors receive. The only inquiries that show up on those reports are those that fall into none of these categories. (If you request your own credit report, it shows all inquiries, whether they "count" or not.)

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