What Is a Soft Credit Check (And Does It Affect Your Score?)

The Invisible Credit Check

You Probably Got One Today and Didn’t Even Know It

Somewhere between your morning coffee and reading this sentence, there is a decent chance a company pulled your credit file. Not because you applied for anything. Not because you did something wrong. It just happened quietly in the background, the way it does for hundreds of millions of Americans every single day.

That background check is called a soft credit inquiry, and it is one of the most misunderstood parts of the entire credit system.

A Credit One Bank survey found that more than one-third of respondents could not tell the difference between a soft and hard credit inquiry. That confusion costs people real money and real opportunities.

So let’s clear it up. Think of this as the explanation you deserve but nobody in the financial industry ever bothered to give you.

Why This Matters for You Right Now

If you are dealing with debt collectors or trying to rebuild your credit, understanding soft inquiries is not optional. It is essential. Knowing the difference between a soft pull and a hard pull can save you from panicking over things that do not matter and help you catch the things that actually do. If you have ever avoided checking your own credit score because you were afraid it would drop, this article is especially for you. You are not alone in that fear, but the good news is that fear is based on a myth.

What a Soft Credit Check Actually Is

The Simple Definition

A soft credit check, also called a soft pull or soft inquiry, is when someone looks at your credit information for a reason that has nothing to do with you actively applying for credit. It shows up on your credit report, but only you can see it. Lenders reviewing your file for a loan application will never know it happened.

Common examples include checking your own credit score through a free service like Credit Karma, a credit card company prescreening you for a promotional offer, an employer running a background check, or your existing bank reviewing your account. Your car insurance company might run one when you renew your policy, and your landlord might use one to verify your rental application.

What Makes It Different From a Hard Pull

A hard inquiry happens when you actively apply for credit and give a lender permission to pull your full report. Mortgages, auto loans, credit card applications, and personal loan applications all trigger hard pulls. The key distinction is that you initiated the process by filling out an application. The practical difference is enormous. Hard inquiries get factored into your credit score. Soft inquiries do not. Period. There is no gray area here, no asterisk, no hidden exception buried in the fine print.

Does a Soft Credit Check Affect Your Score?

The Short Answer Is No

What Is a Soft Credit Inquiry? The 4-1-1

A soft credit inquiry, sometimes called a “soft pull” or “soft credit check,” is a type of credit inquiry where you or someone else looks at your credit report for reasons other than making a lending decision. A lender makes a hard credit inquiry when deciding whether to lend you money. But credit card companies might make a soft credit inquiry to preapprove you for credit. You might also make a soft credit inquiry when you check your own credit report.

How Do Soft Inquiries Affect Credit Scores?

Soft credit inquiries have no effect on your credit scores. Zero. Zilch. Zip. Both FICO and VantageScore, the two main companies that calculate credit scores, say that soft inquiries do not affect your credit score.

Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, the three major credit-reporting agencies, also confirm this. In fact, Experian says you could have dozens or even hundreds of soft inquiries on your credit report and it wouldn’t affect your credit score at all. That means you could check your credit report every day for a year, and nothing would change.

Why Don’t People Check Their Credit Scores?

This may shock you, but nearly a quarter of Americans who hadn’t checked their credit score in a year didn’t do so because they believed it would hurt their credit score, according to a March 2025 All About Cookies survey of 1,000 U.S. adults. That’s nearly one in four Americans who are misinformed about how credit works.

This myth can be especially destructive because people who are afraid to check their credit are often the same ones who most need to do so. These individuals are likely to have errors on their credit reports or even accounts they didn’t authorize that they don’t know about, which could be hurting their credit scores. The irony here is painful. The people who need to check their credit the most are the least likely to do it.

If you’ve been afraid to check your credit report because you’re worried about the effect on your credit score, don’t be. Access your credit report now. It’s a soft inquiry, and it won’t affect your credit score at all.

What Are Hard Inquiries? What’s the Damage?

Now we have hard inquiries, which do affect your credit score. But the effect is probably less than you think. According to FICO research, a single hard credit inquiry will generally lower your credit score by fewer than 5 points. Five. That’s it. As you might expect, multiple hard inquiries within a short period can add up and affect your credit score more noticeably.

But generally speaking, one hard credit inquiry is basically nothing to worry about. In fact, hard inquiries account for only about 10 percent of your FICO credit score. And once an inquiry is over a year old, it doesn’t affect your credit score anymore, even though it will remain on your credit report for two years.

So what’s the big deal about hard inquiries, then? Well, it’s not about one or two of them. It’s about when hard inquiries become a pattern. FICO says that people with six or more hard inquiries on their reports are 8 times more likely to declare bankruptcy than consumers with no inquiries. That’s why hard inquiries are a factor in FICO credit scores.

A 2022 LendingTree study found that 45.6 percent of U.S. consumers had at least one hard credit inquiry within the past six months. In Kentucky, 9.4 percent of consumers had six or more hard inquiries within that same time frame. These are the kinds of situations where hard credit inquiries can start piling up and dragging your credit score down.

The exception is rate shopping. If you’re applying for a mortgage, car loan, or student loan, FICO considers those all to be rate shopping, and you won’t be penalized for it. Multiple inquiries for the same loan type in a 45-day period are consolidated to a single inquiry in newer versions of the FICO model. It recognizes that you are comparison shopping, not applying to every creditor in town.

When Soft Pulls Go Wrong

The Bait and Switch Problem

This is where things can get interesting, and a little infuriating. Some companies offer soft-pull preapproval but then perform a hard pull without making that clear. This isn’t just a theoretical issue. It is the subject of active federal litigation.

In 2023, a class action was filed against American Express. The consumer plaintiff alleged that the company’s Apply With Confidence program would only require soft pulls as she applied for several cards. Afterward, she noticed that American Express had run hard inquiries on her Experian and TransUnion reports for a card she was declined for. The case was allowed to proceed past the initial pleading stage.

In 2025, a class action was filed against fintech firm Aven Financial. The plaintiff alleged that a technical glitch in Aven’s credit monitoring app triggered a hard pull and opened a home equity line of credit when the user attempted to claim a weekly Starbucks gift card reward. She received a hard pull notification from Experian moments after claiming the reward. Aven confirmed that the glitch was real.

Unauthorized Hard Pulls and What They Cost Consumers

Perhaps the most extreme example in recent history was the Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal. Between 2002 and 2016, employees opened an estimated 3.5 million unauthorized accounts. Each one initiated a hard credit pull that the customer never requested. The total fines across multiple federal agencies totaled over $7 billion.

Credit expert John Ulzheimer, formerly of both FICO and Equifax, has provided some helpful context on the relative importance of hard inquiries. He has said that, “Inquiries are the least meaningful factor of a credit score. You are not going to go from an 820 to a 680 because of one, or even 100, inquiries.” However, that doesn’t change the fact that unauthorized hard pulls are a violation of your FCRA rights regardless of their score impact.

In the 2025 case of Kenon v. Waldorf Ford, a Maryland woman discovered that a car dealership ran 24 unauthorized credit inquiries after she had already signed the paperwork and driven off the lot in her new vehicle. She lost 121 points off her credit score. The judge denied the dealership’s motion to dismiss the case.

How to Protect Yourself

Check Your Reports Regularly Using Soft Pulls

You have the right to request free credit reports from each of the three major bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.com. Ordering these reports is always a soft pull. Despite that, CFPB research indicates that around 90 percent of eligible Americans never take advantage of the free service. You can also enroll in free credit monitoring services that exclusively use soft pulls. These services will periodically monitor your credit report and alert you to any changes. You’ll be aware of any unauthorized hard inquiries immediately rather than being blind-sided when you’re denied a loan a few months later.

Know What You Are Agreeing To

Before you click that See My Rate or Check My Eligibility button, look for disclosure language that tells you whether the company will be doing a soft or hard pull. Legitimate pre-approval tools will clearly state that they’re using a soft pull. If a company is unclear about the type of pull they’ll run, that’s a red flag. Keep in mind that a soft pull may turn into a hard pull as soon as you move from pre-approval to an application. Just because you can get pre-approved for a credit card with a soft pull does not mean that the application process will be soft. The application itself will almost always generate a hard pull.

Dispute Unauthorized Hard Inquiries

If you find a hard pull on your credit report that you did not authorize, you have the right to dispute it. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, creditors must have a permissible purpose to pull your credit report, and you must grant written permission for most hard pulls.

In 2024 alone, the CFPB received approximately 2.5 million credit and consumer reporting complaints. That accounted for 85 percent of all complaints filed with the bureau. Many of those complaints had to do with unauthorized inquiries, inaccurate reporting, and bureaus that failed to properly investigate consumer disputes. You are not powerless here. The law is on your side.

The Bottom Line on Soft Credit Checks

What to Remember

A soft credit pull is a behind the scenes look at your credit report that has zero scoring impact. You can rack up as many soft pulls as you like without any impact on your credit score. That includes checking your own credit report, getting preapproved for credit offers, and having your accounts periodically reviewed by your existing creditors. Only hard pulls matter and even those are usually worth less than five points each.

The real danger is not a single hard pull. It’s a pattern of several hard pulls in a short amount of time or hard pulls that you didn’t authorize in the first place.

When to Call for Help

If you’re finding unauthorized hard pulls on your report, collection accounts you don’t recognize, or errors that the credit bureaus refuse to correct, you don’t have to go it alone. The credit reporting industry processed more than 2.5 million consumer complaints last year and the number is growing.

At FightCollections.com we specialize in holding debt collectors and credit bureaus accountable when they break the rules. Whether it’s an unauthorized pull, an inaccurate collection account, or a bureau that’s ignoring your disputes, our team can help you understand your rights and take action.