Three weeks ago we bought a used van from a dealership and explained we didn't want a lot of pulls on our credit report. The finance guy was great and within 2 pulls found a finance company.

Now yesterday we bought a used car for my teenage daughter and went to another dealership (only because the one we went to two weeks ago didn't have anything available). This is a very big dealership in our area. Again, I told the finance guy please don't do a lot of pulls. Today I find 9 different companies on my report! Boy am I aggravated. Is this normal to have so many pulls? Can't the finance department look at a credit report and sort of figure out a few companies that might accept me, instead of putting it through 9 places?

I'm sure the finance guy would have love to have nailed the loan with one pull from one of his lenders. He is evidently shopping the loan to get a bank to approved based on how it is contracted.

Yes, of course we can figure out what companies will do what way in advance of contracting, however the sales manager may not always agree with us, and insist it be contracted the way YOU and HE have agreed to with your salesperson.

Then it becomes an F&I job to make it stick.

It seems like your mistake was buying two cars within three weeks of each other and not just buying them both at the same time. Inquiries for auto and home loans that occur during the same period (2 weeks for auto loans and 30 days for motgage loans I believe) basically count as one inquiry, since they're generally considered to be all for the same piece of credit.

At least you know the second F&I guy was working hard for you to get the best possible rate, you could make the argument that the first guy may have stuck you with a higher rate than necessary since he probably only shopped one lender (two pulls would indicate that the dealership pulled once, then only one lender).