Soft Inquiry

Soft inquiry summary:

• Creditors, insurance companies, landlords, and even employers sometimes check your credit before doing business with you. 

• A soft inquiry appears on your credit report, but doesn’t lower your credit score. 

• Sometimes a soft inquiry is a precursor to a hard inquiry once you formally apply for a loan. 

Soft Inquiry Definition and Meaning

A soft inquiry is a type of credit check that doesn’t impact your credit score—but a record of it appears on your credit report. Soft inquiries are not related to a formal application for credit and may be used by companies to find customers, prequalify borrowers, evaluate job candidates or set insurance rates. Your permission is not required for a soft inquiry as long as it's related to a "permissible purpose" under the fair Credit Reporting Act. 

Key Features of a Soft Inquiry 

A soft inquiry goes by a few other names—you might see it referred to as a soft pull or a soft credit check. You can undergo one even if you didn’t apply for credit (as opposed to a hard inquiry). That's because soft inquiries may be  used to determine your reliability in situations not related to borrowing money and don't indicate additional risk. 

When someone checks your credit using a soft inquiry, they don’t need your permission. You'll usually be asked or informed about it, however (especially in the case of a potential landlord or employer). You supply information like your full name and Social Security number. They may not check your credit reports from all three major consumer credit bureaus, so you only see the soft inquiry on the report(s) they did check. 

Real-Life Examples of a Soft Inquiry

Here are a few times you might experience a soft inquiry: 

• You pull copies of your own credit reports. 

• A potential employer runs a credit check prior to offering you a job. 

• A landlord checks your credit before approving your lease application. 

• A credit card issuer checks your credit to see if you can be pre-approved for a card offer (which it then sends you in the mail).

• You apply for auto insurance, and the insurer checks your credit-based insurance score.

• You apply for pre-approval for a loan or a mortgage. 

Is a Soft Inquiry a Big Deal? 

You don’t need to worry about soft inquiries. The benefits of a soft inquiry can include a job offer, personal loan offers you can compare, or more knowledge about your credit history before you apply to borrow money. 

According to credit bureau Equifax, soft inquiries are only visible to you on your credit report (and not companies you might do business with now or in the future), and fall off your credit report in 12 to 24 months. You could have many of them on your credit report and the impact to your credit score will be the same—nothing at all.