Introduction
Your credit score is one of the most important pieces of information you need for getting a loan. It's also something that can be affected by a hard inquiry and soft inquiry on your credit report. In this post, we'll cover what these terms mean and how they affect your credit score.
A hard inquiry, also known as a hard pull, can temporarily affect your credit score.
A hard inquiry is a request to your credit report that you have made or will make an application for a loan or other benefit. Hard inquiries can be made by lenders when you apply for a loan or credit card, but they also include applications you may have made on your own to other businesses such as landlords and employers.
A soft inquiry does not affect your credit score in any way and does not require that you pay any fees. This type of request simply helps them better understand who you are so they can determine whether or not it's worth granting access to certain accounts/services based on their risks associated with providing them with those benefits at this time (e.,g., lending money).
Inquiries can occur when you apply for a loan or a credit card.
When you apply for a loan or a credit card, the lender will contact the credit bureaus. This is called a hard inquiry because it’s an official request that your file has been flagged by the lender and needs to be reviewed.
This type of inquiry can temporarily affect your credit score by pushing it down slightly in order to make sure there are no errors on file before approving your application.
Lenders always perform hard inquiries when evaluating you for a loan or new credit card.
Hard inquiries are placed on your credit report when you apply for a loan or new credit card. They’re not the same as hard pulls, which occur when someone takes an action like pulling up your report in real-time.
Hard inquiries are just one piece of the puzzle that lenders use to evaluate whether or not they want to lend money to someone. The other major factor is payment history and how much debt you have compared with your income level.
You may not be able to avoid hard inquiries entirely.
It is possible to avoid hard inquiries entirely, but you may not want to. Hard inquiries are often required for new credit cards, mortgages and other loans:
Credit cards - If you have a credit card that isn't linked to your bank account (a "soft" inquiry), then it will not trigger an additional hard inquiry on your report. This means that while the soft inquiry still shows up in your credit report as part of the process of opening up an account with them, it will not count towards the total number of times they have checked out your file since then.
Mortgages - The same goes for mortgages: if they're looking at getting a mortgage through another lender instead of using one of ours because "you don't qualify," then no problem! Just call us up and ask them why they did this before accepting their offer anyway—it could just be something as simple as there being too many red flags when checking things out online...
You have more control over soft inquiries vs hard inquiries.
You can avoid soft inquiries. If you're not interested in a particular deal, you can simply decline it without any hard feelings. Hard inquiries are a little more awkward, but they're easier to shrug off by saying something like: "No thanks, I'm not looking for anything right now."
The biggest difference between hard and soft inquiries is that you can avoid soft inquiries. If you're not interested in a particular deal, you can simply decline it without any hard feelings.
Hard inquiries are a little more awkward, but they're easier to shrug off by saying something like: "No thanks, I'm not looking for anything right now."
Soft inquiries can occur when an employer checks your credit report.
Soft inquiries can occur when an employer checks your credit report. This is a less damaging type of inquiry than a hard inquiry and will not impact your credit score as much.
Hard pulls may occur because of identity theft or mistakes.
Hard pulls may occur because of identity theft or mistakes. Identity theft, which can be a problem in any industry and is not limited to finance companies, occurs when someone uses your personal information without permission or authorization. This can happen through fraud or hacking and has been increasing over the past few years. Mistakes are also common, especially when people use their own name when trying to apply for credit cards or loans. If you think that this might have happened to you (or know someone who did), it's best to contact the company right away so they can fix the situation before your hard inquiry goes through and affects how much they're willing to lend you money at once!
However, even though these types of errors do happen from time-to-time throughout our lives as consumers—and sometimes even more often than we'd like—we should keep in mind that soft inquiries don't affect our credit scores in any way whatsoever:
You have more control over soft inquiries than hard pulls on your credit report.
Hard inquiries are more likely to appear on your credit report if you apply for a loan or line of credit. Soft inquires, on the other hand, don’t have any impact on your score — so if you have a hard inquiry and want to get a soft inquiry removed from your report, it's best to wait until after applying for something new.
If you want to get a soft inquiry removed from your report, it's best to wait until after applying for something new. The only way to remove it is through disputing the item on your credit report with the credit bureaus. You can also control hard inquiries by applying for a loan or line of credit with the same lender. For instance, if Bank of America has just approved you for their cash back rewards card, don't apply for another card from them until you've met
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed learning about the difference between a hard and soft inquiry. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us. We're here to help!