Thread: AT&T cell phone credit check - did this "ding" my credit score?

Hi, When I was choosing my cell phone carrier earlier this year first I had gone to AT&T, but after they had asked me for a $500 security deposit I then went with Verizon who did not want any deposit. My question is whether or not AT&T doing an inquiry for my credit information would harm my credit score because i did not end up going with them. My step-father says that it would as it would look as if I was denied, is this true?

Also i am going into boot camp for the US Navy in December and planned to suspend my cell phone account for the 2 months I would be in and then resume upon graduation and they would add two months to my contract. My question for this is whether or not this could negatively effect my credit score as well?

#1 Yes the AT&T check will be a hard pull and affect your score whether or not you were denied, although not by that much. They might not even check all 3 bureaus so not all your scores will change.

#2 Suspending your account for military (or any other) reason will not affect your score, since there is no credit inquiry involved. I am active duty Air Force myself and I regularly suspend my Verizon phone for 2 months at a time when I deploy.

Awesome, thank you very much for the reply. I didn't think it would do anything , but wanted to make sure it didn't look like I had missed payments or anything like that.

Since you brought it up, a missed phone bill will generally not go on your report unless it is so late that it gets turned over to collections. Only credit accounts, ie. credit cards, loans, mortgages go on your report. Usually.

Yep, I had a Verizon inquiry in my Experian for 2 years.