What does 'Soft Inquiry' mean on a credit report?

The short answer

A soft inquiry means someone (or you) checked your credit report in a way that does not affect your credit score. It is completely harmless and happens more often than you think.

Why is it on your credit report?

Soft inquiries show up for a number of everyday reasons:

• You checked your own credit — looking at your own report through a free service or your bank always counts as a soft inquiry
• A company pre-approved you — credit card companies and lenders often check your credit to send you “pre-approved” offers in the mail
• A background check was run — employers or landlords sometimes pull a soft credit check during their screening process
• Your existing lender reviewed your account — banks and credit card issuers periodically check in on current customers
• A rate-comparison tool checked your eligibility — many apps and websites do a soft pull to show you personalized loan or insurance rates

Soft inquiry vs. hard inquiry

This is the important part:

• Soft inquiry — does not affect your credit score, visible only to you, no permission needed
• Hard inquiry — can lower your score by a few points, visible to other lenders, requires your consent (happens when you formally apply for credit)

Only hard inquiries impact your score. If you see a soft inquiry, your score was not affected.

When should you worry?

Almost never. But keep an eye out if:

• You don’t recognize the company — while soft inquiries are harmless, an unfamiliar name could mean your information is being used for pre-screening without your knowledge
• You see hard inquiries you didn’t authorize — that is a red flag for identity theft and worth disputing with the credit bureau
• You’re confusing soft with hard — double-check the inquiry type to make sure a lender didn’t do a hard pull without your permission