How long do hard inquires stay on your credit report?
Quick insights
- A hard inquiry is a credit check that a lender runs to help determine your eligibility for loans and lines of credit.
- Hard checks can stay on your credit report for up to two years but may only affect your credit score for about a year.
- Soft inquiries do not impact your credit score, whereas hard inquiries may have an impact.
If you’re getting ready to take out a loan or apply for a new line of credit, it may be helpful to know that the lender may run a hard inquiry, which includes access to your credit report. Running a hard inquiry may temporarily impact your credit score. Here’s what you may want to know about hard inquiries and how they affect credit.
What is a hard inquiry?
A hard inquiry (also known as a “hard pull” or “hard check”) is essentially a credit check. Typically, a lender or creditor will request to access your credit report to help them determine your level of risk, your terms, the amount of credit you may be eligible for and more.
For an entity to run a hard check, they need your permission. That’s why you may want to carefully review applications for loans, credit cards and leases for apartments and homes.
For example, let’s say you’re going to take out a personal loan. Your lender/creditor may run a hard check to determine if you qualify for the loan and also to help decide the terms and conditions associated with that loan.
Hard inquiry vs. soft inquiry
There are two types of inquiries when it comes to your credit report—hard checks and soft checks:
- A hard check is a “hard pull” or credit check that a lender runs to help determine your eligibility for loans, lines of credit and more. These inquiries can appear on your credit report and have an impact on your credit score.
- A soft check (or a “soft pull”), on the other hand, occurs when you or another party (such as a potential employer, or lender or issuer) is given authorization to access and review your credit report. A soft inquiry is done if you’re interested in reviewing your own credit or if you’re applying for certain types of preapprovals. Soft inquiries do not impact your credit score even though they also appear on your credit report.
A helpful way to remember the difference is that "hard" checks do have an impact on your credit score while "soft" ones do not. What's more, hard checks are typically only run when you apply for a loan or line of credit.
Chase Credit Journey® is a free online tool for anyone 18 or older with a valid U.S. address and Social Security number (SSN), offering access to your credit score and personalized score improvement plans* provided by Experian™—no Chase account required.
How long does a hard inquiry stay on your report?
A hard inquiry generally lasts on your credit report for up to 2 years. However, their effect on your credit score doesn’t necessarily last this long.
How do hard inquiries affect your credit score?
A hard check may only have a minor impact to your credit score. The exact number of points your score may drop is dependent on your current score. Regardless, your score typically won’t drop by more than a few points.
Can you remove hard inquiries from credit report?
Generally speaking, there is no way to remove a fully authorized hard check from your credit report. However, if there's been an error (for example, you never authorized the hard check), you can file a dispute in order to remove it. Contacting the relevant credit bureau and providing appropriate documentation may help. Note that this is rare, and it can take time for the inquiry to be removed.
In summary
A hard check occurs when a lender does their own necessary due diligence on you as a borrower to help determine risk. That’s why it may be important to be in a healthy place with both your credit and credit score when your lender runs a hard check. Paying your loans and credit card balances on time and monitoring your score regularly, as well as using services like Credit Journey, may help you to maintain proper visibility into your credit.
