Glossary

Soft Inquiry

A credit-report pull that does not affect the credit score. Pre-approvals, employment checks, self-pulls.

A soft inquiry is a credit-report pull that does not affect the consumer's credit score. Examples: pre-approval mailings (the lender pulled your bureau data without your application), employer credit checks, your own self-pulls via Credit Karma or annualcreditreport.com, periodic account reviews by your existing lenders.

Soft inquiries appear on credit reports but only on the consumer's own copy — they're not visible to lenders during a credit decision.

Also called

soft pull

Related terms

Hard Inquiry

A credit-report pull triggered by an application for new credit. Costs 3-10 points; stays 2 years.

Credit Monitoring

A service that alerts consumers to changes on their credit reports — new accounts, hard inquiries, balance changes.

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