Hard Inquiry vs Soft Inquiry
A hard inquiry happens when a lender pulls your credit report because you're applying for new credit. It usually shaves a few points off your credit score and stays on your report for two years. A soft inquiry is any other check — your own credit pulls, pre-approval offers, employer checks. Soft inquiries don't affect your score at all.
Last reviewed on 2026-04-27.
Quick Comparison
| Aspect | Hard Inquiry | Soft Inquiry |
|---|---|---|
| Triggered by | Applying for credit | Self-checks, pre-approvals, employment, insurance |
| Affects credit score? | Yes — typically a few points | No |
| Visible to other lenders? | Yes | No (only you see them) |
| Stays on report | Two years | Often a year or so; varies |
| Examples | Mortgage, auto loan, credit-card, personal-loan applications | Checking your own score, pre-qualification offers, employer background checks |
| Permission required | Yes — you authorise it on the application | No explicit per-pull authorisation needed |
Key Differences
1. When each happens
Hard inquiries are tied to applications for new credit. Apply for a credit card, an auto loan, a mortgage, or a personal loan — the lender pulls your report, and that pull is recorded as a hard inquiry.
Soft inquiries happen everywhere else: checking your own score, looking at pre-qualified offers, an employer running a background check, an insurance company quoting you, or your existing creditors checking in periodically.
2. Effect on your credit score
A hard inquiry usually drops your score by a small amount — often less than 5 points. The effect fades within months and is invisible after a year.
Soft inquiries don't affect your score at all. You can check your own credit as often as you like; pre-approval offers don't penalise you.
3. Why hard inquiries hurt at all
Scoring models treat hard inquiries as a small risk signal: applying for a lot of new credit at once correlates with financial stress. The penalty is small per inquiry and bounded.
Soft inquiries don't carry that signal — you checking yourself doesn't indicate distress, and pre-approval offers happen without your effort.
4. Rate-shopping windows
When you're shopping for a single product (a mortgage, an auto loan), most modern scoring models bundle hard inquiries for the same product within a 14–45 day window into one. Three mortgage applications in two weeks count as one hit, not three.
Soft behaviour during rate shopping is irrelevant — pre-qualification stages typically use soft pulls and don't hit your score at all.
5. Visibility
Hard inquiries show on your report and are visible to other lenders. They can wonder why you've been applying widely.
Soft inquiries show only on your own copy of the report — other lenders don't see them.
6. How long they stay
Hard inquiries remain on your report for two years, though they stop affecting your score after about a year.
Soft inquiries typically appear on your report for around a year (varies by bureau) but never affect the score.
When to Choose Each
Choose Hard Inquiry if:
- Applying for new credit when you're ready to commit.
- Rate-shopping for a mortgage or auto loan within a focused window.
- Cases where the cost of new credit (lower rate, higher limit) outweighs the small score impact.
Choose Soft Inquiry if:
- Monitoring your own credit — check as often as you like.
- Receiving pre-qualified offers without commitment.
- Letting employers, landlords, or insurers check without lasting effect.
- Comparing rates without committing to a hard pull.
Worked example
A homebuyer is ready to apply for a mortgage. She checks her own credit (soft) every month for six months beforehand, sees the trend, and times the application well. When she applies, three lenders pull her credit (three hard inquiries) within two weeks — but the scoring model bundles them as one. Her score dips a few points, recovers within months, and she gets the rate she expected.
Common Mistakes
- "Checking my credit hurts my score." Checking yourself is a soft inquiry. Only when you apply for credit does the lender's pull become hard.
- "All hard inquiries within a month count separately." For mortgage/auto rate shopping, modern models bundle them. For multiple credit cards in a month, they probably don't.
- "Pre-qualification is a hard inquiry." Almost always a soft pull. The actual application that follows is the hard one.
- "A hard inquiry is the main thing that lowers my score." Usually no — payment history and credit utilisation matter much more.
This is general educational information, not personalised advice. See the disclaimer for the full note.