soft Pull

[ktm214]

What is the effect on a FICO score regarding a soft pull. Also, with me still learning, what is the difference between soft and hard pulls? Thank you.

[Jutz]

Hard Pull/Inquiry will be visible to other creditors who pull your credit, hard or soft.  It also impacts your score, however the severity of it varies based on how thick or thin your file is, other negative marks, and number of inquiries in general.  A hard pull will be viewable for two years, however the scoring impact only lasts for one.

Soft pull is only visible to you.  These will be done by a variety of sources, including but not limited to Promotional pulls, by companies who may be interested in your business, account reviews, but companies you currently deal with, or collections companies who want to get an idea of what the odds are that you can pay the debt they have been assigned or sold.  Soft pulls do not affect your credit score, and are only viewable when you pull your report directly from the bureaus (Since credit monitoring sites like Credit Karma or even My FICO are third parties, and thus would not see the soft pulls)

It should also be mentioned that hard pulls for installment accounts like Auto, or Mortgage, done in within a set amount of time, will be grouped for scoring purposes, meaning you will lose points as if they were only one pull.  However, all of them will be shown individually upon manual review.

[Shogun]

+1  Nothing else to say here, nice post Jutz!

[electra]

Curious...what information does a Creditor get in a Soft Pull? 

Also, Jutz/Shogun, I've heard that before about HP's that occur around the same time being scored as 1.  Do you know what that time frame is?  Same day? Within a week? Month?  

[Jutz]

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducation/creditinquiries.aspx

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What to know about "rate shopping."

Looking for a mortgage, auto or student loan may cause multiple lenders to request your credit report, even though you are only looking for one loan. To compensate for this, the score ignores mortgage, auto, and student loan inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So, if you find a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won't affect your score while you're rate shopping. In addition, the score looks on your credit report for mortgage, auto, and student loan inquiries older than 30 days. If it finds some, it counts those inquiries that fall in a typical shopping period as just one inquiry when determining your score. For FICO scores calculated from older versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 14 day span. For FICO scores calculated from the newest versions of the scoring formula, this shopping period is any 45 day span. Each lender chooses which version of the FICO scoring formula it wants the credit reporting agency to use to calculate your FICO score.

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If I understand it correctly:

98 Models - 14 days

04 Models - 30 days

08 Models - 45 days

[Shogun]

It depends on how it's coded and of course the time frame.  Auto and mortgage are the two that it really affects.  Auto is usually around a week, not too sure about mortgage.  

[Shogun]

Wow... that's quite a bit of difference in the models.   I know when I refianced my car, they were 8 days apart, and not scored differently.  I would assume then it's how it was coded.

[electra]

Thanks Jutz!  That's very helpful!  

What does this mean though?

98 Models - 14 days

04 Models - 30 days

08 Models - 45 days

[Shogun]

He was giving you the days according to the different scoring models of TU.  Transunion has different scoring models, TU98 is what you get here, TU04 is the standard mortgage pull and TU08 is the FICO you get from Walmart if you have their CC and sign up for paperless billing.

Different lenders pull different models, and each model has different algorithims they use to determine your score.

[RobertEG]

The mystery of so-called soft pulls is one that, as far as I know, is not documented, and is not regulated under the FCRA other than promotional offers for credit.

The terms hard and soft are not even used in the FCRA.

As to what they see, if they have permissible purpose to pull your CR, they get the full CR except for promotional offers for credit that were not initiated by the consumer.

The FCRA specifically limits such inquiries to only your name and address, and prohibits the inclusion of any account-specific information.