How To Guide For: A Look At How Credit Inquiries & Credit Checks Affect Your Credit Score

A credit inquiry occurs when your credit report is pulled and this happens when you apply for a credit card or a loan. Inquiries are classified as soft and hard inquiries. You should be worried about hard inquiries because these inquiries will affect your credit.

What is a hard inquiry you ask -- a hard inquiry is the one that you begin for the purpose of securing credit or a loan. This kind of inquiry will count negatively against your credit. Applying for multiple credit cards or loans will also hurt your credit score. A soft inquiry is when you get a notice in the mail from a credit card company or any lender saying you've been pre-approved for credit. That is a soft inquiry because you didn't initiate it the lender did for promotional purposes. Also I do this a lot --when you check your credit score, this is also a soft inquiry and doesn't count against you.

This is very important information that everyone should know. To learn more about how credit inquiries and credit checks affect your credit - please click on the pictures below to read the articles.