An inquiry is a record that someone accessed your credit file. Only some of them affect your score, and the ones that do affect it far less than most people fear.
Hard vs. soft
- Hard inquiry: you applied for credit — a card, loan, mortgage, or sometimes a lease or utility account. Visible to lenders and scored.
- Soft inquiry: checking your own report, pre-approval offers, account reviews by existing creditors, most employment screening. Not scored.
The real impact
A single hard inquiry typically costs a handful of points and stops affecting most scoring models after about 12 months, though it stays visible for about two years. The pattern matters more than the count: six applications in a month reads very differently from six spread over two years.
Rate shopping is protected
Multiple inquiries for the same type of loan — mortgage, auto, or student — inside a focused shopping window are counted as one inquiry by modern scoring models. Do your rate comparison inside a 14 to 45 day window rather than spreading it over months.
Disputing unauthorized inquiries
You may dispute an inquiry you did not authorize. Unrecognized hard pulls are also an early warning sign of identity theft and should trigger a review of the rest of your file.
This content is educational only and is not legal, tax or financial advice. Arreglocredito.com is not a law firm. Consumers have the right to dispute inaccurate information directly with the credit reporting agencies at no cost. Individual results vary.