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

[masscredit]

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?

[DaveSignal]

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

[masscredit]

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

[DaveSignal]

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.

[masscredit]

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.

[DaveSignal]

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.

[masscredit]

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?

[wHiTeSoL]

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.

[DaveSignal]

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.

[Dubious]

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?