Hard Inquiry
A hard inquiry (or 'hard pull') is a credit check triggered by your formal application for new credit. It typically drops your credit score by 5-10 points temporarily and stays visible on your credit report for 24 months. Hard inquiries are what lenders see when evaluating whether you've recently applied for other credit.
Hard inquiries happen when you formally apply for credit and the lender pulls your report to make a decision. Common triggers include credit card applications, personal loan applications, mortgage applications, auto loan applications, and sometimes utility account openings.
Score impact
The standard estimate is “5-10 points” per hard inquiry, but the real number depends on your file:
- Thin files (under 5 years of credit history): a single hard inquiry can drop scores 10-15 points
- Thick files (10+ years, multiple account types): same inquiry might only drop 3-5 points
- Multiple recent inquiries: each additional inquiry has slightly larger impact than the last
The score impact peaks shortly after the inquiry and fades over 6-12 months. By 12 months out, the effect on your score is usually minimal. By 24 months, the inquiry drops off your report entirely.
Rate-shopping windows
For mortgages, auto loans, and student loans, FICO scoring models bundle multiple inquiries within a 14-45 day window (depending on FICO version) into a single inquiry for scoring purposes. This lets you shop rates without being penalized for it.
Personal loans don’t get this treatment in most FICO models. Five personal loan applications in two weeks register as five separate inquiries. This is why pre-qualification (which uses a soft inquiry) is so valuable for personal loan shopping: you can compare offers without the score hit.