topic Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull? in Credit Cards

What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

masscredit — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:23:45 GMT

I know that a hard pull shows up on your CR but what is the difference in what they see? Do they just view your account with them or other info?

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

DaveSignal — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:25:34 GMT

They can see everything on your report. Its the same as getting your credit report from a CMS (also a SP).

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

masscredit — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:27:55 GMT

If they can see everything on your report, what is the difference between a HP and SP?

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

DaveSignal — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:29:22 GMT

A SP does not show in the inquires section when another creditor is looking at your report. It also does not deduct points from your FICO score.

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

masscredit — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:35:45 GMT

So aside from that, what is the difference? If each report provides the exact same info, why does one or the other exist? I understand why inquiries happen. Is it just a matter of them thinking that it's important enough to be a HP (like new credit)? Sometimes you can call one company for a CLI and it's a SP while it's a HP from others.

Hope it doesn't sound like I am making this difficult to figure out. Just trying to figure out why there is a difference.

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

DaveSignal — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:39:29 GMT

Any credit is supposted to use a HP when the customer asks for additional credit. This is just how the credit reporting system works.

Why do creditors report a 30-day late when your payment is late by 30 days?

Why do creditors report that an account is closed after you close an account?

Why do creditors report at all?

The answer to all of these questions is that the credit reporting agencies show a history of credit that many creditors prefer to use. It works because the creditors report things.

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

masscredit — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:48:34 GMT

Maybe looking at it this way will answer my question - some creditors will view your credit to pre-qualify you for offers. You can see that they did that but it doesn't ding your score (no HP). So one creditor might choose to do it this way if your asking for a CLI while others will choose to put it in as a HP when they view your credit.

Am I on the right track?

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

wHiTeSoL — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 21:51:51 GMT

I never really understood the difference either. The one that boggles my mind the most is "I"m sorry Mr, we cannot approve you for a CLI with a SP but we can try with a HP" If all the information they receive is the same then this should never happen. I think OCs get more information from a HP someway somehow.

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

DaveSignal — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 22:01:50 GMT

Lenders use SP all the time. Most pull your reports frequently. Most of mine do a SP once a month, sometimes alternating between different CRAs. These are SP because you didn't ask for anything so having these inqs on your report for all to see does not reflect your actual credit seeking history.

Some creditors will use the last SP they did to grant you additional credit. Some will pull a new SP as an additional benefit to cardholders. Amex does SP, they also backdate. Neither of these practices helps to reflect an accurate credit history, but Amex chooses to do it anyway as a cardholder benefit. If all creditors did SP and backdating for everything, then credit reports would lose their value and become useless.... banks would need to find a new way to monitor credit history.

Some creditors will auto-CLI and this is also a SP. This is different, you didn't ask for anything. The HP is there to reflect your credit-seeking behavior because this behavior has been determined to be a legitimate factor when calculating the likelihood of default.

Most creditors do HP for any new credit requests. This is the way the credit reporting system is designed to work. If everyone decided just not to report things anymore, then this system would no longer work for everyone.

But yes, any creditor has the ability to do both SP and HP. These inqs are coded differently.

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

Dubious — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 22:20:23 GMT

I think what the OP is trying to ask is what is the difference between a HP and a SP in terms of the info the creditor can see.

In other words, does a SP provide the lender the same information a HP would?

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

DaveSignal — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 22:23:52 GMT

@Dubious wrote:
I think what the OP is trying to ask is what is the difference between a HP and a SP in terms of the info the creditor can see.

In other words, does a SP provide the lender the same information a HP would?

I did mention this already, but when you pull a credit report from a CMS like USAA or Eliminate ID Theft, this is a soft pull of your credit report. What you see there is what the creditor has pulled.

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

Awesomely — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 22:26:39 GMT

I think manual hard pulls are looked at by the person and they decide what to do. Hard pulls and soft pulls by computers might be the same thing but hard pulls are done because it shows that you are looking for credit which is the whole part of the game.

Re: What is the difference between a hard pull and soft pull?

Anonymous — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 22:32:37 GMT

@wHiTeSoL wrote:
I never really understood the difference either. The one that boggles my mind the most is "I"m sorry Mr, we cannot approve you for a CLI with a SP but we can try with a HP" If all the information they receive is the same then this should never happen. I think OCs get more information from a HP someway somehow.

This can easily just be policy enforced by computer. The rep is unable to give you a CLI with a SP (based on your profile) but may be able to give you one with a HP even though the info is the same.

Also, remember there are different types of SP (and presumably the CRA charges differently) So for "pre-approvals" there are basic searches returning name and address of those that meet the input criteria.