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How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on a Credit Report?

4 min read

Last Updated: September 25, 2025

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

A hard inquiry appears on your credit report when a lender views your credit report after you apply for a new line of credit.
Unlike soft inquiries, hard inquiries can affect your credit score.
Hard inquiries may stay on your credit report for up to two years.

When you apply for credit, such as a new credit card or a home loan, the lender will request your credit report from a credit reporting agency. This is what’s called a hard inquiry, or credit inquiry, and it can impact your credit.

So, how long does a hard credit inquiry stay on your credit report? And how much do hard inquiries affect your credit score?

What are hard inquiries?

A hard credit check is when a lender pulls your credit report after you’ve applied for a line of credit. This could include applications for auto loans, mortgages, personal loans, or credit cards.

Your credit report includes things like your payment history, credit utilization ratio, and other pieces of financial information. All of this information forms your credit history, and it affects your chances of getting approved for credit.

A credit pull may impact your credit score, but you don’t necessarily have to worry. In some cases, a hard inquiry won’t cause a significant change to your credit score.

The difference between hard inquiries and soft inquiries

While hard inquiries may affect your credit score, soft inquiries won’t. A soft credit check occurs when you or a company checks your credit report, but you haven’t applied for credit.

For example, a soft credit inquiry can occur when you pull your own credit file to review your credit score, you receive a promotional credit card offer, or the IRS verifies your identity to issue your tax refund. In these cases, a soft inquiry appears on your credit report, but doesn’t affect your credit score.

Does a hard inquiry affect your credit score?

A single hard inquiry may affect your credit score, but usually only by a few points. While each hard inquiry may affect your credit score, there are circumstances where multiple credit inquiries within a short period of time won’t have a larger impact on your score.

Imagine you’re searching for an auto loan or home mortgage loan. You shop around to get the best deal on interest rates and apply to multiple lenders, resulting in multiple hard inquiries. When you do this search within a short period of time (usually 14 to 45 days), multiple inquiries won’t affect your credit score more than a single inquiry.

Take note: credit scoring models usually count shopping for loans as a single inquiry, but the same isn’t true for credit card applications. This is because you must sign a final loan agreement to receive a loan, while a credit application is final.

How long do hard credit inquiries stay on your credit report?

Hard inquiries stay on your credit report for up to two years. However, depending on which credit scoring model a major credit bureau uses, only the inquiries from the previous 12 months affect your score.

It’s a good idea to request a copy of your credit report from each major credit bureau once a year or so. If you see an unauthorized hard inquiry on your credit report, you can dispute it with the credit bureau, and they’ll investigate it. If they find that it shouldn’t be on your report, they’ll remove it.

Reduce the impact of hard inquiries

While hard inquiries can affect your credit score, you can take steps to mitigate the negative impact. For example, if you’re shopping for home or auto loans, try to group multiple applications into a short time frame. That way, they’ll count as one hard inquiry in credit score calculations.

You can also ease the negative effect of a hard inquiry on your credit score by staying on top of your credit score in other ways. For example, making on-time payments and lowering your credit utilization ratio can have a positive impact on your credit score.

Did you know?

When you add available credit while maintaining your current credit use, you can improve your credit utilization ratio. If you make on-time payments to your new credit account, that could help your credit score even further.

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The bottom line

Hard credit checks are a way for lenders to review your credit report when you apply for new credit. They may affect your credit score. Multiple hard inquiries in a short period of time could affect it even more.

It’s a good idea to review your credit report regularly. If you see an unauthorized inquiry that could be affecting your score, you can dispute it with the credit bureau.

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