Applying for a line of credit includes a hard pull on your credit.
While pre-approval and employee-based credit pull include soft pulls.
Hard pulls affect your credit, soft pulls do not.
So be sure you know the difference.
Many factors affect your credit score, or not all of them are within your control.
One of the uncontrollable factors is credit pulls, which can be done by a lender, landlord, and credit card company.
They do this to see if you are worthy of a loan, an apartment, and a mortgage.
These inquiries can take the form of either a difficult pull, which does affect your credit score, and a soft pull, which doesn’t affect your credit score.
What is a soft pull?
A soft pull is when some credit card company or lender will check your credit report for a background check. It is easily a review of your credit, and there is no in-depth check, so that is why your credit is not affected.
A soft pull shows what you see if you look at your credit report lines of credit, loans, payment history, and any collections accounts.
Unfortunately, these soft pulls can happen without your permission.
What is a hard pull?
A hard pull is used to determine whether and not you are worthy of being given a loan and credit card. These pulls can lower your score, particularly if you have a bunch of hard pulls within a short time span.
A handful of hard pulls all at once shows companies that you are in need of some money, which is a sign of poor money management. These pulls will remain on your report for 2 years. But these hard pulls do not affect your score as much as other factors such as credit use as well as the length of your credit history.
How do hard pulls affect your credit score?
Hard pulls on your credit report signal that you’re looking to open a line of credit. The extra inquires you have in a short period; the more creditors can assume you’re in financial distress and therefore at high risk for delinquencies. Both the FICO and Vantage Score credit scoring models factor in recent credit behavior, including new inquiries.
This may affect your score in 2 ways.
When you apply for a new account, you can notice a slight dip in your score due to the hard pull. This is temporary and should only affect your score by some points at most. However, if you have opened many new credit accounts recently, that can potentially affect your score long term. Hard inquiries can stay on your credit report for up to 2 years, which means that is how long they can potentially affect your score. Hard pulls factor into your Chase 5/24 eligibility.
How soft pull or inquiries impact your credit score
Soft credit inquiries do not have any effect on your credit score. Though soft inquiries can look on a special section of your credit report, they aren’t recorded by either FICO or Vantage Score, which means they can’t affect your credit score. The reason soft inquiries aren’t tracked by FICO and Vantage Score is that soft inquiries aren’t directly related to a credit application.
A lender can conduct a soft credit inquiry as part of a credit pre-approval, but that is not a similar thing as completing the credit application procedure. If you apply for a credit card after getting a pre-approval offer, the lender will do a hard credit pull before they will decide whether to accept you for the card.
Conclusion
Your credit score or overall credit report are both essential to your financial health. If you will know the difference between a hard pull and a soft pull then it will help you lessen the risk of dinging your score and provide you peace of mind, checking your score and going through a pre-qualification tool would not affect it. Remember, while hard inquires can affect your credit score, they make up a small percentage of your overall score. As long as you have a proven history of paying bills on time and never over-utilizing your lines of credit, a new inquiry should not negatively affect your score long-term.
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