Credible
Get Rates
  • Refinance Student Loans
    • Compare Options
      • Best Refinancing Companies
      • Lender Reviews
      • Refinance Student Loans
      • Student Loan Consolidation
    • Learn the Basics
      • Fixed vs. Variable Rates
      • Forgiveness Programs
      • Consolidation vs Refinancing
      • Repayment Plans
      • More on Student Refi
    • How to
      • Consolidate Your Student Loans
      • Pay Off Your Student Loans
      • Lower Your Interest Rate
    • Tools
      • Current Student Loan Refi Rates
      • Refinancing Calculator
      • Repayment Calculator
      • Student Loan Score Calculator
  • Student Loans
    • Compare Options
      • Private Student Loans
      • Parent Student Loans
      • Law School Loans
      • Medical School Loans
      • Graduate Student Loans
    • Learn the Basics
      • Student Loan Limits
      • Living Expenses
      • Applying for FAFSA
      • Federal Student Loans
      • Student Loan Interest Rates
      • More on Student Loans
    • How To
      • Pay for College
      • Take Out Student Loans
      • Apply Without Cosigner
      • Apply for Student Loans
      • Pay for Grad School
    • Tools
      • Best Private Student Loans
      • Current Student Loan Rates
      • Student Loan Interest Calculator: Estimate Payments
      • Lender Reviews
  • Personal Loans
    • Compare Options
      • Best Personal Loan Lenders
      • Lender Reviews
      • Get Personal Loan Rates
    • Learn the Basics
      • How to Qualify
      • How to Get a Loan
      • Where to Get a Loan
      • Personal Loans with Cosigner
      • Pay Off Credit Card Debt
      • More on Personal Loans
    • Best for
      • Credit Card Consolidation
      • Debt Consolidation Loans
      • Home Improvement Loans
      • Good Credit
      • Fair Credit
      • Bad Credit
    • Tools
      • Current Personal Loan Rates
      • Personal Loan Calculator
  • Mortgages
    • Compare Options
      • Mortgage Refinance
      • Home Loan
      • Best Mortgage Refinance Companies
      • Best Mortgage Lenders
      • Mortgage Preapproval
      • Mortgage Payment Calculator
    • Compare Rates
      • Mortgage Refinance Rates
      • 30-Year Fixed Refinance Rates
      • 15-Year Fixed Refinance Rates
      • Home Loan Rates
      • 15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
      • 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
    • Learn the Basics
      • How to Buy a House
      • How to Refinance Your Mortgage
      • How to Get the Best Rate
      • Cash-Out Refinancing
      • More on Home Loans and Refi
    • Pay Off Mortgage
      • Home Equity to Pay Off Debt
      • Paying Off Mortgage Early
      • Mortgage Refinance Cost
  • Insurance
    • Insurance Products
      • Insurance Products
      • Learn more about home insurance
    • Compare Options
      • Compare Insurance Quotes
      • Home Insurance Guide
    • Learn the Basics
      • What Home Insurance Covers
      • How Much Home Insurance You Need
      • Estimate Your Home Replacement Cost
      • How to Change Home Insurance
  • Company
    • About
    • Reviews
    • Blog
    • Lenders
    • Editorial Guidelines
    • FAQs
    • Press
  • Find My Rate
Advertiser Disclosure

Difference Between Soft and Hard Credit Inquiries

Soft credit inquiries don’t affect your credit score, but hard inquiries can cause your score to lower.

Dori Zinn Dori Zinn Edited by Ashley Harrison Updated October 13, 2021

Our goal is to give you the tools and confidence you need to improve your finances. Although we receive compensation from our partner lenders, whom we will always identify, all opinions are our own. By refinancing your mortgage, total finance charges may be higher over the life of the loan.
Credible Operations, Inc. NMLS # 1681276, is referred to here as "Credible."

Lenders use a soft credit check or hard credit check to determine your creditworthiness.

Hard inquiries appear when you’ve given someone permission to check your credit report in order to process a credit or loan application — these can also lower your score. Soft credit inquiries don’t harm your credit score but do involve someone checking your score.

In this post:

  • Soft credit check vs. hard credit check
  • Soft credit check
  • Hard credit check
  • Check your credit report

Soft credit check vs. hard credit check

 Hard credit checkSoft credit check
Background check for a new jobNoYes
Pre-qualified credit card offersNoYes
Using Credible to compare ratesNoYes
Applying for a new apartmentYesYes
Private student loan or PLUS Loan applicationYesNo
Mortgage applicationYesNo
Applying for a personal loanYesNo
Auto loan applicationYesNo
Applying for a credit cardYesNo

Soft credit check

A soft credit check is sometimes referred to as a soft pull or soft inquiry. Soft credit checks don’t always require your approval and can happen at any time.

For example, when you get an offer in the mail for a pre-qualified credit card, it’s because the lender used a soft credit check to look at your credit history to determine you were potentially worth lending to.

A soft credit inquiry can happen when:

  • A company you’ve applied for a job with does a background check on you
  • You apply for an apartment
  • You check your credit score
  • You use Credible to compare rates

Even if a soft credit pull ends up on your credit report, it won’t cause your credit score to drop as a result of the inquiry.

Learn More: How to Build Credit

Hard credit check

A hard credit check, also known as a hard credit pull or hard inquiry, does impact your credit. It occurs when you’ve given a person or company permission to check your credit. You’re giving a lender permission to check your credit to see not only if you’re approved, but what your terms and interest rate will be.

A hard credit inquiry can happen when:

  • You apply for private student loans
  • You apply to take out a mortgage
  • You apply for a personal loan
  • You apply to refinance your student loans

While your credit score might drop from one hard inquiry, it usually rebounds after a couple of months. Expect a FICO score drop of anywhere between five and 10 points after a hard inquiry. Even after your score rebounds, hard inquiries can stay on your credit report for two years.

Even though it’s a small percentage of what makes up your credit report, too many hard inquiries can tell lenders you’re a credit risk — which means you might be denied credit in the future.

The good news is, when you’re rate shopping, or completing many different applications for the same type of loan within 14 to 30 days, it usually counts as one inquiry. For instance, if you’re buying a home and submitting many different applications to get pre-approved, those tend to count as one hard inquiry, rather than many.

Check your credit report

You can check your own credit report for free every year at AnnualCreditReport.com. When you look over your report, you’ll be able to see if any hard credit checks occurred recently.

When reviewing your credit report, check to see if there are any errors or credit inquiries you didn’t authorize. These could be a sign of identity theft. You can dispute credit errors with individual credit bureaus like Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax.

If you find any inquiries on your report that you didn’t authorize, you can submit a complaint with The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) about a financial product or service that used your information without your permission.

Keep Reading: How to Improve Your Credit Score

About the author
Dori Zinn
Dori Zinn

Dori Zinn is a student loan authority and a contributor to Credible. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, Bankate, Inc, Quartz, and more.

Read More

Home » All » Personal Finance » Difference Between Soft and Hard Credit Inquiries

Personal Loan Basics


  • Personal Loan Interest Rates
  • How to Get a Personal Loan
  • Qualify for a Personal Loan
  • Where to Get a Personal Loan
  • Time to Fund a Personal Loan
  • How to Get Out of Credit Card Debt

Personal Loan Amounts

  • Get a $5,000 Loan
  • Get a $10,000 Loan
  • Get a $20,000 Loan
  • Get a $50,000 Loan
  • Get a $100,000 Loan

Tools and Resources

  • Good Credit Loans
  • Fair Credit Loans
  • Bad Credit Loans
  • Get Personal Loan Rates
  • Current Personal Loan Rates
  • Best Personal Loan Lenders
  • Best Debt Consolidation Loans
  • Personal Loan Calculator
  • Lender Reviews

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related Articles

Personal Loans

How to Find the Best Debt Consolidation Loans

Personal Loans

Best Debt Consolidation Loans

Personal Loans

What to Do if Your Personal Loan Application Is Denied

  • Read More
    • Refi Student Loans
    • In School Loans
    • Personal Loans
    • Mortgages
    • Insurance
  • Resources
    • Lender Reviews
    • Loan Calculators
    • Student Loan Score Calculator
    • Data Insights
    • Debt Statistics
    • Sitemap
  • Compare
    • Student Loan Refinance
      • Current Student Loan Refi Rates
    • Student Loan Consolidation
    • Private Student Loans
      • Current Student Loan Rates
    • Personal Loans
      • Current Personal Loan Rates
    • Refinance Mortgage
      • Mortgage Refinance Rates
        • 15-Year Fixed Refinance Rates
        • 30-Year Fixed Refinance Rates
    • Home Loans
      • Home Loan Rates
        • 15-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
        • 30-Year Fixed Mortgage Rates
    • Insurance
  • Top Lenders
    • Best Student Loan Refi Companies
    • Best Private Student Loans
    • Best Personal Loans
    • Best Mortgage Lenders
    • Best Mortgage Refinance Companies
  • Company
    • About
    • Reviews
    • Blog
    • Editorial Staff
    • Editorial Guidelines
    • News
    • Press
  • Legal
    • Terms of Use
    • Privacy Policy

© 2022 Credible


Credible Operations, Inc. NMLS ID# 1681276 | NMLS Consumer Access | Licenses and Disclosures
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.