A soft pull is a check of a credit file with no lending decision pending. Only the person concerned can see it, and it has no effect on the score.
A soft pull is a check of a credit file with no lending decision pending. Only the person concerned can see it, and it has no effect on the score.
Also called: Soft inquiry.
How it works#
A soft pull happens when you view your own file, when a lender pre-qualifies you for an offer, and when an existing provider reviews an account it already holds. It appears in your own report but not in the version another lender is shown. Reading your own file therefore costs nothing later. Publications almost always write soft pull rather than soft inquiry.
Not to be confused with#
A soft pull is not a hard pull: a hard pull requires a pending lending decision, is visible to other lenders and counts towards the score.
In German#
The German term is Soft Pull. German version of this term
Related terms#
- Hard pull: A hard pull is a check of a credit file made because a lending decision is pending. It is recorded, visible to other lenders and counts towards the score.
- Credit inquiry: A credit inquiry is a lender’s check of a credit file; a hard inquiry is recorded and visible to others, while a soft inquiry is not.
- Credit score: A credit score is a number a bureau uses to express how likely a person is to meet their payment obligations.
Articles that use this term#
TopicEvery article and term onCredit score.
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