Applying for credit many times within a short period can hurt your credit score. When you apply for any type of credit (such as an auto loan, credit card, department store card, or mortgage), the lender considering your credit application checks your credit history. This is recorded in your credit report as a "hard inquiry." Although inquiries are an unavoidable result of applying for credit, lenders dislike seeing many within a short period (such as 6 months). This is because they do not know whether you are "shopping" for the best offer, or if you are desperately trying to get credit because of financial trouble.