Find Out Who Has Checked Your Credit Report

Soft Inquiry vs. Hard Inquiry

Credit inquiries are generally categorized into soft inquiries and hard inquiries.

• Soft inquiries: If someone checks your credit report for a non-lending reason, such as when you check your own report or get preapproved for a credit card, that's recorded as a soft inquiry.
• Hard inquiries: If someone checks your report as part of a lending decision, such as when you apply for a new loan, that's recorded as a hard inquiry.

There are other differences as well. For example, soft inquiries have no effect on your credit scores, but hard inquiries might hurt your scores a little. Here's a brief comparison of the two:

Learn more: Can Someone Check My Credit Without Permission?

How to Find Out Who Has Checked Your Credit Report

You can find out who checked your credit report by taking the following three steps:

1. Check your credit report. Request a copy of your three credit reports from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. The credit bureaus add an inquiry to your credit file when they compile your credit report for someone. Companies might only request one or two of your reports, or credit scores based on those reports, so don't be surprised if the inquiries aren't identical across all three reports.
2. Find the inquiry sections. Your credit report will be formatted differently depending on where you get your copy. However, there will generally be sections for the hard and soft inquiries. Sometimes they have different labels, such as "account review" inquiries for soft inquiries.
3. Review the inquiries. Each hard inquiry lists the name of the company that requested your credit report, the date of the credit check and the organization's contact information. However, sometimes the name doesn't match the company name you might expect. For example, if you go to an auto dealership and apply for an auto loan, you might see multiple inquiries from banks and credit unions, not the dealership.

Credit inquiries will remain on your credit reports for up to two years, so you may not be able to determine who checked your credit reports before then unless you have older copies of your reports.

Learn more: How Many Hard Inquiries Is Too Many?

Getting Your Free Experian Credit Report

You can get free credit reports from all three bureaus through AnnualCreditReport.com, and you can request a new copy from each bureau every week.

Additionally, you can access your Experian credit report for free with an Experian account, and your report will be updated daily. An Experian account also gives you insights into which factors are hurting or helping your credit score the most.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

You can find out who checked your credit report by requesting a copy of your report and looking over the soft and hard inquiries. The soft inquiries might be interesting to review, but they have no impact on your credit scores. Hard inquiries can have a minor impact, and unexpected hard inquiries could be a sign of identity theft or fraud, so it's more important to monitor this section. If you have a credit monitoring program, such as Experian's free credit monitoring, you could also get automatic alerts when there's a new hard inquiry in your credit file.