Hard vs. soft credit inquiries: what’s the difference?
Part of our credit scores guides. Start with What affects your credit score.
Every time someone looks at your credit report, it’s recorded as an inquiry. Some inquiries can affect your credit score and some can’t, and the difference usually comes down to whether you applied for new credit.
What an inquiry is
An inquiry is a record that a business pulled your credit report. The CFPB says lenders check or obtain your report at a few points: when you apply for credit, just before a loan closes, and while they manage accounts you already have.
Inquiries fall into two groups, usually called hard and soft. Knowing which is which can take some of the worry out of checking your own credit or comparing loan offers.
Hard inquiries
The CFPB says a check made because you applied for new credit is called a “hard inquiry” or “hard pull,” and that a hard inquiry affects your credit score.
Lenders usually make this kind of check when you apply for a new loan, such as:
- A credit card
- An auto loan
- A mortgage
- Another type of consumer loan
The CFPB lists other times a lender may check your report, including mortgage pre-approval, a request for a higher credit limit, refinancing, and right before a loan closes.
Why applications can count
The FTC explains that some scoring systems look at how many recent inquiries you have, and that many recent inquiries can count against you. The CFPB notes that many applications in a short period can look like a sign of financial trouble to lenders.
The CFPB’s advice is to apply only for credit you need, and the FTC suggests not opening several new accounts at once. For more on the other things scores weigh, see what affects your credit score.
Soft inquiries
The CFPB says that when a lender you already do business with pulls your credit, it’s a soft inquiry, and that a soft inquiry doesn’t affect your score. The FTC similarly says that inquiries from creditors monitoring your account, and from businesses sending you prescreened offers, aren’t counted.
Checking your own credit
Looking at your own credit report doesn’t hurt your score. The CFPB has called the idea that it does a myth. Requesting your free reports or buying your own report has no effect on your score.
As of November 2026, the FTC says you can get free reports from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, every week at AnnualCreditReport.com.
Prescreened offers in the mail
Getting an unsolicited credit card offer doesn’t affect your score, according to the CFPB. A card issuer can get your name and address from a credit reporting company to send you a prescreened offer. But if you accept and apply, the issuer will check your credit, and that application shows up as a hard inquiry.
If you’d rather not get these offers, the CFPB points to optoutprescreen.com as the place to opt out.
Just asking about rates
The CFPB says that if you’re only asking a lender about rates, the lender can’t pull your credit report.
Shopping around for a loan
You might worry that comparing several lenders will hurt your score. In a 2019 blog post, the CFPB said that for most people, the effect of multiple inquiries is small compared with the benefit of shopping for better terms.
For some loans, scoring models treat several inquiries as one. The FTC says multiple inquiries from mortgage lenders within a short period are often counted as a single inquiry. The CFPB’s 2019 post said that for auto and mortgage loans, requests made within a window of 14 to 45 days are treated as a single inquiry, depending on the type of loan.
The CFPB’s tip: do your rate shopping within a short period to keep any impact small.
Not every scoring model handles inquiries the same way. These are general patterns from federal regulators, not a promise about how any one inquiry will affect your score.
The short version
- A hard inquiry comes from applying for new credit, and the CFPB says it affects your score.
- A soft inquiry, such as a check by a lender you already use, doesn’t.
- Checking your own credit report doesn’t hurt your score.
- Prescreened offers don’t affect your score unless you apply.
- Rate shopping within a short window can limit the impact of multiple inquiries.
Sources
- CFPB: When will my lender run or obtain a copy of my credit report?
- CFPB: Does it hurt my credit score when I get unsolicited credit card offers?
- CFPB: Credit score myths that might be holding you back from improving your credit
- CFPB: How do I get and keep a good credit score?
- FTC: Credit Scores
General information, not legal or financial advice. Laws and government guidance change, so check the sources above for the latest.