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Does a Soft Credit Check Affect Your Credit Score?

4 min read

Published October 10, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

A soft credit check happens when you or anyone else reviews your credit report when you haven’t applied for new credit.
Soft credit checks don’t impact your credit score.
When you apply for new credit, you trigger a hard credit inquiry, which may impact your score.

By checking your credit reports and credit scores often, you can detect mistakes, identify bad credit habits, and keep track of your credit card accounts. But how does checking your report affect your credit score?

Looking at your own credit history produces a soft credit check. Good news—soft credit checks don’t affect your credit score, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). Knowing when to expect a soft credit check and how it differs from a hard credit check can help you make credit decisions with confidence.

When you check your credit score, that's called a soft credit check

Requesting copies of your credit reports from the major credit bureaus or looking at your credit score through a third-party service triggers a soft credit check.

A soft credit check, also called a “soft credit inquiry” or “soft credit pull”, is any credit check that’s not related to a credit application. Soft credit checks don’t impact your credit score.

Checking your own credit reports with a soft credit check won’t hurt your credit score. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you’re entitled to one free credit report from each major credit bureau every year. The Federal Trade Commission explains that all three credit bureaus now allow you to request free copies of your credit report each week under a permanent extension of a program introduced in 2020.

Other ways a soft credit check can occur

Checking your own credit score isn’t the only way to initiate a soft credit check. Any time anyone reviews your credit file for any reason other than reviewing your credit application, they’re performing a soft credit inquiry.

Soft credit inquiries may give lenders and others an overview of your credit habits, but not necessarily access to your whole credit file.

A soft credit check may happen when:

A prospective lender reviews your credit history to determine whether you qualify for pre-approved offers.
You’ve requested pre-qualification before applying for new credit.
An existing credit card company or other lender reviews your credit to determine whether you qualify for new terms or a higher credit limit.
A potential employer checks your credit as part of the job application process.
You apply for mortgage preapproval.

Some applications, like renting an apartment, may result in a hard or soft inquiry. If you’re unsure, you may want to ask the lender so you know what to expect.

Do soft inquiries affect your credit score?

No, soft credit inquiries don’t affect your credit in any way. Even if you get multiple soft credit checks in a week, your credit score won’t change.

Soft inquiries don’t affect your credit score because they don’t point to any credit risk, like a high credit utilization ratio or trouble managing debt.

Do soft credit checks show up on your credit report?

You may see soft credit checks on your credit report even if you haven’t applied for new credit.

Some types of soft pulls may appear on your report for a year or two after the initial inquiry. Remember, even if a soft inquiry appears on your credit report, it doesn’t influence your credit score or hurt your eligibility for new credit.

What does affect your credit score? A hard inquiry

Applying for credit, like a new credit card or personal loan, triggers a hard credit inquiry (also known as a “hard credit pull” or “hard credit check”).

A hard credit inquiry may lower your credit score by a few points. Unlike soft inquiries, hard credit checks require your permission. When a credit card issuer or another lender performs a hard check, they pull your credit file to take a closer look at your credit history.

New credit doesn’t influence your credit score as much as your credit utilization ratio or payment history. But multiple hard credit checks in a short timeframe may cause significant damage to your credit score. Applying for multiple credit cards or loans at once may sometimes point to a financial or credit issue that presents more risk to lenders.

Even if you’re on the lookout for a new credit card, it’s best to avoid applying for too many cards at once.

Did you know?

If you’ve just started building credit history, you may qualify for a secured credit card, which requires a deposit as collateral at account opening. There’s no credit score required to apply for a Discover it^® Secured Credit Card.¹

Learn More

The bottom line

You can—and should—review your credit report often without fear because soft inquiries don’t affect your credit score. The pre-approved and pre-qualified credit card offers you receive also don’t affect your credit score. But if you decide to apply for one of those offers, the credit card issuer will likely conduct a hard credit check, which may impact your score.

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