Galt Loans

Credit Checks When You Compare Loans

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Applying for a loan often involves someone looking at your credit. Whether that affects your score depends on the type of inquiry.

Key takeaways

  • Hard inquiries can affect your credit score. Soft inquiries do not.
  • Lenders often make a hard inquiry after you apply for credit.
  • The kind of inquiry used at each step depends on the specific company. Ask, and read the consent text.

Hard inquiries

Hard inquiries are often made by lenders after you apply for credit, to help them decide whether to approve it. Hard inquiries can affect your credit score because most scoring models look at how recently and how frequently you apply for credit.

Sources: [1]

Soft inquiries

Soft inquiries do not affect your credit scores. Checking your own credit report is one example.

Sources: [1]

What to ask before you submit a request

  • Will this step involve a hard inquiry, a soft inquiry, or none?
  • Who will check my credit: this site, a partner network, or the lender?
  • Will my information be shared with more than one lender?

This site is not a lender and does not make credit decisions. When the application partner for this site is configured, its own disclosures will state what checks it and its lenders perform. We make no claim here about any partner's credit-check practice.

Sources: [1]

Frequently asked questions

Does checking my own credit hurt my score?

No. Reviewing your own credit report is a soft inquiry, and soft inquiries do not affect your credit scores.

Does applying for a personal loan affect my credit score?

It can. Lenders often make a hard inquiry after you apply for credit, and hard inquiries can affect your score.

Sources

  1. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What is a credit inquiry?
    Checked September 19, 2026 (automated fetch, not yet confirmed by a human editor)