How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report?

What Is a Hard Inquiry?

A hard inquiry happens when you apply for new credit and the lender reviews your credit report. As part of assessing your creditworthiness, lenders generally review your credit report from one or more of the three major consumer credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion or Equifax). This action, also called a hard credit check or hard pull, is added to your credit report as a hard inquiry.

Learn more: What Is a Credit Report?

Soft Inquiry vs. Hard Inquiry

A hard inquiry occurs when a lender reviews your credit report after you apply for credit. A soft inquiry occurs when you check your credit report or someone you authorize reviews your credit report without your applying for credit.

Both hard and soft inquiries appear on your credit reports, but while hard inquiries may affect your credit scores, soft inquiries don't.

Soft inquiries happen when you check your own credit report and may also occur when:

• A potential employer runs a credit check
• A lender checks your credit report to prescreen you for loan or credit card offers
• You apply for a credit preapproval that involves a soft inquiry
• A company where you already have a credit account checks your credit

When you apply to rent an apartment, it may cause either a hard or soft inquiry. If you're concerned about potential impacts to your credit scores, you can check with the landlord to see what type of credit check they will run.

Learn more: How Many Hard Inquiries Is Too Many?

How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report?

Hard inquiries can stay on your credit reports for up to two years, but they typically don't affect your credit score for that long.

FICO^® Scores^Θ only consider hard inquiries from the prior 12 months, while VantageScore^® credit scores can consider hard inquiries from the prior 24 months. However, the impact of a hard inquiry on both FICO and VantageScore credit scores usually lasts just a few months.

How Much Does a Hard Inquiry Affect Your Credit Score?

A new hard inquiry typically causes your FICO^® Scores to drop by less than five points, and your VantageScore credit scores to drop by five to 10 points. This is a relatively minor decrease, and your scores should rebound in a few months all else being equal.

A single hard inquiry won't lower your credit score by a set number of points. Both the FICO^® Score and VantageScore credit scoring models consider new or recent credit less important than other factors, such as payment history and credit utilization, when determining your credit score.

Hard inquiries generally have a bigger impact if you have several hard inquiries for different kinds of credit within a short time period. Multiple hard inquiries in a short period of time may signal to lenders that you're having a hard time managing your debt, which makes you more risky for them to lend to.

Tip: A hard inquiry can negatively affect your credit scores even if your application for credit is denied.

Learn more: What's the Most Important Factor of Your Credit Score?

How Do Hard Inquiries Affect Shopping for Loans?

Shopping for the best rates on installment loans such as mortgages, student loans and auto loans generates multiple hard inquiries, but timing your credit applications right can minimize any negative impact on your credit scores.

Most credit scoring models treat multiple hard inquiries for loans as a single inquiry for credit scoring purposes if the inquiries occur within a certain time period. This window can vary from 14 to 45 days, depending on which FICO^® Score or VantageScore credit scoring model is used.

Since you can't know for sure which credit scoring model a lender relies on, restricting all your applications for the same type of credit to a 14-day window can ensure they're treated as a single inquiry.

Multiple inquiries for credit cards and personal loans aren't treated the same way, no matter how close together they are. You can rate shop for credit cards and personal loans without hurting your credit by getting prequalified for a personal loan or prequalified for a credit card. Prequalification (also called preapproval when it comes to credit cards) typically doesn't involve a hard inquiry and won't impact your credit score.

Learn more: Do Multiple Loan Inquiries Affect Your Credit Score?

How to Reduce the Impact of Hard Inquiries on Your Credit

To minimize the impact of hard inquiries on your credit score, follow these tips.

• Limit applications for credit. Don't apply for credit you don't need, as tempting as it may be to apply for a credit card from your favorite retailer to get an instant discount. Avoid applying for new credit for six months to one year before you plan to apply for a mortgage, auto loan or other major loan, where even a slight drop in your credit score could keep you from qualifying for the lowest interest rate.
• Maintain good credit. The higher your credit score is, the smaller the impact of a hard inquiry is likely to be. You can check your Experian credit report and FICO^® Score for free to see whether you could benefit from improving your credit score.
• Time your loan applications right. Submit multiple applications for the same type of loan within a 14-day window. They'll be treated as one inquiry by credit scoring models, reducing any negative effects on your credit score.
• Get prequalified before applying for credit. Prequalifying for personal loans or credit cards usually involves a soft credit check, which won't affect your credit scores.

Tip: Consider using aggregator tools that match you with credit card and personal loan offers that fit your credit profile, with no impact to your credit score.

Can You Dispute a Hard Inquiry?

You have the right to dispute a hard inquiry on your credit report if you believe it is in error or the result of fraud. Legitimate hard inquiries cannot be removed, but will automatically come off your credit report after two years.

A hard inquiry you don't recognize on your credit report is not necessarily a sign of identity theft. For example, when you apply for an auto loan through a dealership, the dealer typically submits your credit application to several lenders. Even though you only filled out one credit application, your credit report will show hard inquiries from multiple lenders. In other cases, the company that performs the hard inquiry may have a different name than the lender where you applied for credit.

Contact information for a company that performed a hard inquiry can usually be found in the entry on your credit report or online. Before filing a dispute with the credit reporting agency, contact the company to verify the inquiry.

If, after contacting the company, it appears the hard inquiry is in error or someone has fraudulently applied for credit in your name, you can contact the appropriate credit bureau to dispute the inquiry. Filing a dispute is free and can usually be done online, by phone or by mail.

Tip: You'll need to file disputes with Experian, TransUnion and Equifax separately if the item you're disputing appears on more than one credit report.

Learn more: How to Dispute Credit Report Information

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

One hard inquiry on your credit report can cause a small, temporary decrease in your credit score, but shouldn't mean a major drop, especially if you have good credit. However, multiple hard inquiries for different types of credit in a short period could have a bigger negative impact on your scores.

Experian's free credit monitoring service is a convenient way to keep tabs on your credit and track your credit score. You'll also get alerts of important changes to your credit report, such as hard inquiries, so you can take action quickly if you suspect fraud.