HARD / SOFT Inquiries: How do you know?

[Anonymous]

Not wanting to thread jack another topic... I see posts stating "xyz lender has been softing me for a month".  I am a member of myfico Score Watch and Credit Check Total.  How do I tell the difference between a "soft" and a "hard" inquiry?  Seems all of mine are hard.  Someone else mentioned they subscribed to EQ "Gold" monitoring and were advised of soft inquiries.  Does Credit Check Total also alert on soft inquiries?  If so, how do I distinguish the difference?  My apologies if this is in the wrong section or duplicitous.

[haulingthescoreup]

The reports that you get from various credit monitoring services (myFICO, CreditCheckTotal, TrueCredit, CreditSecure, Chase, etc) only show hard inquiries.

To see the softs, you have to have a full report from the credit bureau. It might be one of my posts where you read about EQ Credit Watch Gold. It allows daily pulls of the full EQ report, including softs.

For TU and EX, you have to buy a full report. If there is something that you're disputing on it, you can update your reports to check on the dispute, and that will also let you see any softs.

[JRomulus]

Opening up this old one as a result of my search on the topic of "Where do I see my Softs on Score Watch?"

I spend money annually for the myFico Score Watch and Experian's Credit Expert.  I view it as investments in building and maintaining good credit and a tool for financial discipline.

But as Hauling mentioned, all these products show are your Hard inquiries. 

But I want to see my Soft inquiries and know who's looking at what and when.

So on both sites above I learned that by going to the "Online Dispute" link for the relevant CRA (in Score Watch you find it on tab 8 "Next Steps"), you then get sent to the CRA's site where you get an updated copy of your (real) report AND the list of all your softs.

Yes, again to her point, you do need to have pulled a report within 30 days, but I assume people who are interested in more than a weekly FICO score might be doing this  anyway.

Maybe others knew this, but I never did, and am posting this just in case other myFico members didn't either.

 Edit:  Yes, I did see this info posted really deep in another thread on the same subject from a while ago, after posting this.  Sorry!

[larinoriani]

If you get your free report from freecreditreport dot com, you can actually see the softs. Go to start a dispute and you'll see a copy of the actual report.

[JRomulus]

Yes, true enough. 

But those are once a year per CRA.

I like to check Softs at least quarterly.

[larinoriani]

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@JRomulus wrote:

Yes, true enough. 

But those are once a year per CRA.

I like to check Softs at least quarterly.

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Nope, I think you are talking about annualcreditreport.com, the one I referenced is through Experian and you can request it more than once a year.

[JRomulus]

OK, sorry, got ya.  Haven't tried them.

I have Credit Expert and that is also an Experian product, and yes, the same method works there, i.e., through the dispute process.

[DI]

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@larinoriani wrote:

If you get your free report from freecreditreport dot com, you can actually see the softs. Go to start a dispute and you'll see a copy of the actual report.

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Please don't direct people to that website.  The correct website is annualcreditreport.com.   That's the site where you truly get a free report.  Thanks!

[larinoriani]

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@DI wrote:

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@larinoriani wrote:

If you get your free report from freecreditreport dot com, you can actually see the softs. Go to start a dispute and you'll see a copy of the actual report.

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Please don't direct people to that website.  The correct website is annualcreditreport.com.   That's the site where you truly get a free report.  Thanks!

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Those are two different webseites, and you DO get free EX credit report there. I got mine. It is a legitimate site and don't see the reason why not to mention. Thanks!

[DI]

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@larinoriani wrote:

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@DI wrote:

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@larinoriani wrote:

If you get your free report from freecreditreport dot com, you can actually see the softs. Go to start a dispute and you'll see a copy of the actual report.

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Please don't direct people to that website.  The correct website is annualcreditreport.com.   That's the site where you truly get a free report.  Thanks!

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Those are two different webseites, and you DO get free EX credit report there. I got mine. It is a legitimate site and don't see the reason why not to mention. Thanks!

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They have defrauded the ill informed in the past.  Mainly the people who are just starting the process of rebuilding their credit.  Since so many people come to this site that  just starting to rebuild their credit and seek advice, it's best to not mention sites like those with hidden fees if the free trail isn't cancelled.