Checking Credit Score Affects Score?

[oceanic]

Does checking your credit score on myfico affect the score or does only pulling a copy of the report affect the score?  Thanks.

[DaveSignal]

No, it does not affect your score.  There is probably a sticky on the difference between hard and soft pulls in the general credit forum.

EDIT:  nm, i don't see anything.  the sticky on "how to read your credit report" mentions it though in the inquiries section:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/General-Credit-Topics/How-to-Read-and-Understand-Your-Credit-Report/...

[oceanic]

Thanks for the reply.  It does affect my score if I pull a copy of the credit report though, right?

[DaveSignal]

No.

An inquiry is placed on your credit report when you or a creditor requests the report.  These inquiries are coded in different ways, depending on the reason.  The two main categories are hard and soft.   A hard pull occurs when you applying for new credit, ask for additional credit (a CLI), or similar (such as applying for a new lease at a new apartment).  These inqs are coded to reflect your credit-seeking behavior and then affect your score to varying degrees, depending on your credit profile and how many inqs are already on your report.

A soft inquiry occurs when you pull your own credit report.  This is what happens when you view your score on myFICO.  myFICO pulls your report to generate a score, but it is not coded to reflect a loan you are applying for, because you are not applying for anything and are not showing credit-seeking behavior.  The same thing happens when you pull your report from a CRA directly, or get report information from creditkarma, creditsesame, quizzle, etc.   Its a soft pull.  These inqs can only be seen by you and only when you pull your report directly from the CRA.  They have no effect on your credit because the are invisible and are cannot be used in generating a score.