Difference Between Hard Credit Inquiries and Small Credit Inquiries: Part 1

Credit inquiries allow lenders and other third parties to see when and where you’ve searched for credit in the past. Two kinds of inquiries that can happen on your credit report are hard inquiries and soft inquiries. Even though lenders can see both kinds of inquiries, hard inquiries can negatively affect your credit score.

What are hard inquiries?

Hard inquiries normally happen when you apply for a loan, credit card or mortgage. These inquiries show up when a financial institution, such as a lender or credit card issuer, checks your credit report when making a lending decision.

These types of inquiries have the potential to lower your credit score by a few points and may remain on your credit report for up to two years. The good news is the effect of hard inquiries decreases or diminishes even before the hard inquiry falls off your credit report. In part 2, we’ll cover soft inquiries.

By clicking submit, I authorize Wallet Monkeys and its affiliated companies to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, (2) supplement the information that I provide with additional information lawfully obtained from other sources, like demographic data from public sources, interests inferred from web page views, or other data relevant to what might interest me, like past purchase or location data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email with offers for goods and services from any category at the email address provided, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here.