How to Check Inquiries on Credit Report and Understand Your Credit History

Checking your credit report is a crucial step in understanding your credit history. You can request a free credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus once a year.

Your credit report will show a list of all the inquiries made on your credit report in the past two years. This includes inquiries from lenders, creditors, and other organizations that have accessed your report.

Each inquiry on your credit report will show the date it was made and the organization that made the inquiry. Some inquiries may also show the type of credit being applied for.

Knowing what's on your credit report can help you identify potential issues and take steps to improve your credit score.

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An inquiry is a review of your credit file by a lender or other organization. This review can affect your credit score, but not all inquiries are created equal. A hard credit inquiry can temporarily reduce your credit score by a few points.

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You might receive a hard inquiry when applying for new credit, such as a credit card or loan. This type of inquiry is made specifically to decide whether to approve you for a loan or credit. Hard inquiries can also occur when you apply to rent an apartment or open a bank account.

A soft credit inquiry, on the other hand, doesn't affect your credit score. This type of inquiry appears on your credit report, but it's used for things like checking your credit yourself or when companies make promotional offers. Soft inquiries are often used for account maintenance, and they have no impact on your credit score.

Hard inquiries are usually made by lenders to review your credit report in detail. This helps them determine if you meet their eligibility requirements. Soft inquiries, however, are generally used for non-credit related purposes, such as when you check your credit report yourself.

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There are two main types of inquiries: hard and soft inquiries. A hard inquiry is a record of a lender's request to review your credit report when you've applied for a credit card, loan, or other debt obligation, which can lower your credit score temporarily.

Soft inquiries, on the other hand, include when you check your credit yourself and when companies make promotional offers or perform account maintenance. These kinds of inquiries have no impact on your credit score.

Creditors make hard inquiries specifically to decide whether to approve you for a loan or some form of credit or service, with one notable exception – collection skip tracing.

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You can remove unauthorized inquiries from your credit report by disputing them with the credit bureaus. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, they must investigate and remove disputed errors within 30 days.

Over 30 percent of credit reports contain errors, so it's essential to check your report regularly. You can request a free credit report from each of the three major bureaus once a year through AnnualCreditReport.com.

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If you find an unfamiliar hard inquiry on your report, file a dispute directly with the credit bureaus. They will investigate and remove it if they confirm you didn't initiate it.

Soft inquiries, on the other hand, don't impact your credit score and are only visible to you when you check your own credit report. This includes soft inquiries from existing lenders, monthly account maintenance checks, or promotional credit checks.

In fact, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion now count phone and internet service inquiries as soft inquiries, effective April 6, 2020. If you see these types of inquiries on your report, they're likely soft and won't affect your credit score.

If you're a victim of identity theft and see multiple unauthorized inquiries on your report, contact the credit reporting agencies immediately. You can also visit IdentityTheft.gov for help navigating the process.

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Only personal credit checks, like when you use AnnualCreditReport.com, online personal credit checks, and credit monitoring services, will show soft inquiries on your credit report.

Lenders, insurance providers, and employers who check your credit report won't display your soft inquiries, even if they're looking at your report.

You can see your soft inquiries when you check your own credit report, but they won't be visible to others who view your report.

Credit reporting agencies don't disclose information about soft inquiries on reports sold to third parties.

If a lender, insurance provider, or employer checks your credit report, your soft inquiries will remain hidden.

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Inquiries on your credit report can impact your credit score, but not all inquiries are created equal. A hard inquiry, which is a lender's request to review your credit report when you've applied for credit, can lower your credit score temporarily by 10 points or less.

Hard inquiries are specific to loan or credit applications, and creditors make them to decide whether to approve you for a loan or service. Collection skip tracing is the one notable exception to this rule.

Soft inquiries, on the other hand, have no impact on your credit score. They include when you check your credit yourself and when companies make promotional offers or perform account maintenance.

It's worth noting that hard inquiries are a normal part of the credit application process, and they're usually a temporary setback.

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A hard inquiry can temporarily lower your credit score by 10 points or less, but there are some exceptions.

For auto, mortgage, and student loans, multiple hard inquiries in a short period are not penalized. In fact, FICO scoring models completely ignore inquiries for these types of loans that are fewer than 30 days old.

After 30 days, these inquiries are grouped together and counted as one, a process called "collapsing." This is done to prevent your scores from being penalized for multiple inquiries for the same loan.

However, credit card applications are different. Every hard inquiry can potentially become a new credit card if you're approved, which is why credit scoring models don't collapse multiple hard inquiries into one.

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Credit scoring models are designed to help you rate shop for loans without penalizing your scores. This is especially helpful when shopping for auto, mortgage, and student loans.

All auto, mortgage, and student loan inquiries that are fewer than 30 days old are completely ignored by FICO scoring models. This means you can shop around without worrying about your scores taking a hit.

After 30 days, these inquiries are grouped together and counted as one inquiry, a process called "collapsing." This helps prevent multiple inquiries from lowering your scores.

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Applying for multiple credit cards with the same issuer in a short period of time may only result in one inquiry on your credit report.

This is not because the issuer combines the inquiries, but because the credit bureaus see identical inquiries and avoid duplicate information.

The credit bureaus may only count one inquiry if they look exactly the same because they're from the same issuer on the same day.

A hard inquiry is a normal part of the lending process, and applying for credit cards can have a slight negative impact on credit scores, even if you're approved.

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