How can you tell when your are "softed"?

[Anonymous]

Currently I use True Credit and Equifax and I would love to know how can you tell when  a company has softed you as I can not seem to tell from the products? I also use Fico score watch. Thanks!

[GordonShumway]

You will have to get the full CR from the CRA.

Both TU and Experian will have those "softies" in the inquiry section. Don;t knowhow Equifax shows when you pull them online.

[daisyduke]

True Credit doesn't show you softs. You either have to pretend like you are going to file a dispute (but you will after a couple of tries doing this, most likely get locked out) or pull it from annualcreditreport.com and see the whole report.  I don't know of any other way to view TU softs - including but not limited to other monitioring services.

What Equifax service do you use? I remember when I had equifax goldwatch or whatever the product was called, I remember being able to see my softs.

You won't see softs from scorewatch -

[RobertEG]

Zero, there really is no such thing as a "soft" or "hard" inquiry. 

Those terms are never used within the FCRA,  and reallly have no legal meaning.

The only legal restrition on an inquiry to your CR is not upon how it is coded, but it is upon their authority to make the inquiry, and thus how much t]he CRA can disclose.

Under FCRA 604(c), any inquiry made to your credit file that was not authorized by you, and was thus only a promotional offer for credit, only entitles the inquiree to your name and address.  These must be coded as such, and thus never enter inton FICO scorng. Others lead into unregllated realms.You request, for example,  a CLI Increase, they do a credt pull. FICO scoring depends upon their discretionary coding of the inquiry.  It could be so-called "hard" or "soft."  No grounds for any FCRA dispute,  Not regulated by the FCRA.

What other inquires mean, and how they are coded as "hard" or "soft'" is unregulated,

The only way you can tell is by a comprehensicve putll of your CR reporting codes.  Commercial credit reports dont give you that depth of informatioln

[GordonShumway]

So Robert,

When a OC does an account review and pulls a "soft" coded as you state, what info does it get that is different from the file it would get if a new OC, say, tries to approve you for a new account?

[Anonymous]

i honestly don't understand your concern but i hope this helps.  Keep in mind softees don't have any effect on your credit score.

Like said before soft pulls are mainly done for advertising purposes ... so they will be pulling your credit report along with a whole bunch of other potentials who they may extend credit to. What happens after that is simple you will either get a pre-approved offer in the mail if you meat their qualifications or you won't. 

Also as said before the easiest way to tell is when you request your full report and then you can deduce which ones are and which ones aren't.  None of your inquiries are designated "hard" or "soft".  the only way you can tell and this also depends on how long you had your credit alert service is the inquiries that popped up without your consent for request of an extension of credit.  In other words if they are a business whom you have not asked to lend you credit/ and they have not popped up your alert then it is definately a soft pull. If you haven't had your credit service that long and same criteria minus the alert, then i have to reduce the probability to most likely a soft pull.  Another way of telling is any business that made an inquiry that you have not delt with in the past shows up in your inquiry section then most likely that's a soft pull.  The key is that they made an inquiry that shows up on your complete report like from anualcreditreport.com or requesting a report from experian or transunion directly that you have not asked for an extension of credit from. That's the key, if you have asked for credit then it's a hard pull.

edit: your experian report from experian, the actual credit report will tell you flat out "these inquiries do not affect your credit score"

[Anonymous]

zero credit i hope this helps more to simplify things:

Credit report inquiries that are deamed soft

1.)  Request for advertising purposes... request made by business for their own sake not on your behalf by you or someone pretending to be you

2.) Request made by you

IFFY  3.) request made by a current lender reviewing your account to see if you are still credit worthy, this can include automatic CLi's although automatic CLI's can be the result of them reviewing your activity solely on their account.

Inquiries deamed hard

1.)  any request for credit

2.) manual request for credit line increases ,  cuz like number one they are basically a request for further extension of credit which does normally result in a credit report check

3.) Collection agency account.  This has been debated.  they do have permissable purpose ppl just don't know if they are hard.  Hard to prove one way or the other.  Just have a CA is a ding to your score now who knows for sure if the hard pull is factored in  or not

edit: to other types of inquires ran into less often for which i have no data on.  Maybe someone else can help you out.

1.) Renting, when you rent you sign over your permission for the lessor to run your credit to see if your a high risk of not paying your rent.  Lower credit worthiness usually results in paying two or more months' security deposit and even lower will be an out and out denial unless you can get a co-signer.

I've been through this process before as most of us have but i didn't know my credit score at the time and was not aware so if i did take a hit i wouldn't know.  For the record i had to put in a two month's deposit every time i rented.

2.) a potential employer, this one i gotta  say who really cares cuz you have to get that money so even if ya lose 15points  it's worth a higher income stream (no-brainer) but if you are denied employment makes no sense to dispute it cuz ya could be burning a brige (hint re-apply down the road).

<end edit>

Hope this helps...