What Is a Soft Credit Check?
A soft credit check (or inquiry) is a basic review of your credit report. It usually happens when:
- You check your own credit score
- A lender pre-approves you for an offer
- Employers run a background check
- Insurance companies assess your risk level
Key fact: Soft checks do not affect your credit score. They aren’t visible to lenders reviewing your report, and you can have as many soft inquiries as you want without penalty.
What Is a Hard Credit Check?
A hard credit check occurs when a lender or creditor looks at your full credit report to make a lending decision. This includes:
- Applying for a credit card
- Taking out a personal loan
- Financing a car
- Requesting a mortgage
- Renting from some landlords
Key fact: Hard checks can slightly lower your credit score, especially if you have many within a short time. Each hard inquiry stays on your credit report for up to two years, but only affects your score for about one year.
Why This Matters If You Have Bad Credit
If you’re working to improve your credit, keeping hard inquiries to a minimum can help protect your progress. Too many in a short span can make lenders nervous—it may look like you’re desperate for credit.
How to Tell the Difference
Before authorizing a credit check, ask whether it’s soft or hard. Lenders and landlords should be able to tell you. If you're just shopping around for rates (like comparing loan offers), use sites that do soft pulls only.
Quick Tips
- Avoid hard checks. Apply for pre-approval instead of a full credit card or loan application and requesting a soft check from employers and landlords.
- Avoid applying for multiple credit cards at once. Space out your applications if possible.
- Monitor your credit regularly—you can do this with free tools that only perform soft checks.
