Hard Inquiries vs Soft Inquiries — How They Impact Your Credit Score

Elizabeth Roberts
2 min readFeb 20, 2019

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There are two main types of credit inquiries, which can appear on your credit report. These 2 types are referred to as hard credit inquiry and soft credit inquiry. Even though both these types of inquiries remain in a position to make it possible for a 3rd party to take a look at your credit report, the hard inquiries are the only ones that can affect an unfavorable effect on your credit rating.

What is a hard inquiry?

The hard inquiries happen when your credit card company, loan provider or a financial institution check your credit report, before making a decision about approving our credit application. It happens when you apply for a home loan, credit card or loan.

What is a soft inquiry?

A soft inquiry will not impact your credit report. They can just be done by business you give permission to run your credit.

A soft questions would take place when a business or an individual check your credit report in order to mostly perform background checks. For instance, when you are requesting a brand-new job, a peek at your credit report would be taken. Many insurance firms and utility business likewise use soft inquires. There are even credit card business that are doing soft inquiries for their preliminary credit review. They know that consumers with credit issues need to minimize the number of queries they have on their credit report.

This article was originally posted on www.newhorizon.org, to learn more about credit inquiries, read this article.

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Elizabeth Roberts

Loan broker for over 20 years specializing in providing financing for start up businesses and bad credit business financing.