Credit Inquiry: Will It Hurt Your Credit Score?

By Author: Bestdebtcare
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Typically, there are two types of credit inquiries namely hard and soft inquiry. Generally only a hard inquiry can damage your credit score. A soft inquiry is one in which you are viewing your credit report and it will not affect your credit score in any way. It is also referred to as a soft pull. It is usually carried out by the consumer in order to check the credit rating and all activities reported in the credit history. Moreover, a soft pull can help a consumer to achieve more precision as far as a credit report is concerned. A soft pull will never be viewed negatively by the creditor because you are not trying to apply for any credit at that time. You are simply checking your credit report and it will never come in the way of your credit score. However, there is another type of soft inquiry in which the various companies are going to view your credit report for the purpose of sending some offers etc. Even this will not hurt your credit score because you have not put the request of getting your report checked. Therefore, if the company which has viewed your credit report and decided to provide you with the offers or reject ...
... you for any reason, it will not have any negative effect on the credit score.

On the other hand, hard inquiries are going to affect your credit score drastically. A hard pull or an inquiry is a voluntary one and usually occurs when you are trying to make an application of credit. The hard inquiry is conducted by the credit card issuers, mortgage brokers or any other lender on your request and the report is included in your credit history which shows that you are trying to secure credit. The cell phone providers and cable operators will perform a hard credit check before delivering their services to the consumer. However, a hard inquiry is not an innocuous one and it affects the credit score even if the damage is small. Generally, a hard credit will constitute no more than 10% of your credit report. As a matter of fact, a credit report is indeed sensitive and those consumers who have consulted the debt relief options have ended up with a bad credit score eventually. Therefore, your debt payments and outstanding balance will have a major role to play while deciding the credit score. But if you have applied for too many credits within a period of six months, it is definitely going to be viewed as a negative aspect. The credit bureaus will not put any inquiry as a hard or a soft one. They will make use of specific language to depict a similar movement in the credit score and report. If you are using cash and credit in a responsible manner, and do not apply for credits too often, credit inquiries will not have as much of a damaging effect as otherwise.