Hard Inquiry vs Soft Inquiry
A hard inquiry is a credit check a lender runs when you apply for credit; it can lower a FICO score by roughly 5-10 points, influences it for up to 12 months, and stays on the report for 2 years. A soft inquiry — prequalification or checking your own score — never affects the score.
The distinction matters because fear of inquiries stops many people from ever applying — while others burn their score with too many applications in a short window.
Hard inquiries happen when an issuer pulls your report to decide on new credit: card applications, auto loans, mortgages, some credit-limit increases. One inquiry is minor (usually a 5-10 point dip that fades within months); several in a short period signal risk, and for a thin file each one weighs more.
Soft inquiries include checking your own score, prequalified offers, employer checks, and existing-lender account reviews. They are visible only to you and never move the score — so using prequalification tools before applying is free information.
Strategy angle. Issuer application rules count more than the inquiries themselves: Chase's 5/24 rule looks at accounts opened, not inquiries. Space applications about 3 months apart while building credit, and use each issuer's preapproval page first — see the step-by-step first US card guide.
Common mistakes: rate-shopping cards the way you rate-shop mortgages (card pulls don't deduplicate), and panicking over a single inquiry that will be irrelevant within a year.