Hard Inquiry

What Is a Hard Inquiry?

A hard inquiry, also called a hard pull, is an entry on your credit report that appears when a lender or other authorized party reviews your credit file in connection with a request for new credit. Common examples include applying for a credit card, a mortgage, an auto loan, or a personal loan. Because the check supports a decision about extending credit, it is recorded so that other lenders can see that an application was made.

How It Works

Hard inquiries differ from soft inquiry|soft inquiries, which happen when you check your own credit or when a company reviews your file for a prescreened offer or background check. Soft inquiries do not affect your credit score. Hard inquiries can cause a small, temporary drop in the score, and the effect is usually strongest in the months right after the inquiry. The entry generally stays on the report for about two years, although its influence on the score fades well before then.

Scoring models often treat several inquiries for the same type of loan, made within a short window, as a single inquiry. This practice is sometimes called rate shopping. The exact rules vary by scoring model and by lender.

Why It Matters to Investors

Hard inquiries are a consumer credit concept rather than a market measure, but they can matter to investors who borrow money, for example to buy property or to finance other purchases. A recent hard inquiry may be one factor a lender weighs when deciding whether to approve a loan and what terms to offer.

Knowing how many recent applications appear on a credit report also helps explain changes in a credit score. Lending decisions rely on the full credit profile, so a single inquiry is rarely decisive on its own.