pre qualification and soft pulls
What Is a Soft Credit Pull, and Why Won't It Hurt Your Score?
This article may contain links to our lending partners. We may earn a commission if you check your offers or apply through these links — that relationship never influences what we write.
When you check your pre-qualified offers, a lender or comparison service typically runs a soft inquiry against your credit report. Unlike a hard inquiry, a soft pull:
- Does not appear on your credit report to other lenders
- Has no effect on your credit score
- Can be run as many times as needed without penalty
A hard inquiry only happens later, if you decide to accept a specific matched offer and complete that lender's full application. You'll always be told before that happens.
Why this distinction matters
Many people avoid checking their options because they assume any credit check will ding their score. That's only true of hard inquiries — and even those have a small, temporary effect (typically under five points, recovering within a few months).
Understanding the difference means you can compare offers freely before ever touching your credit score.