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How Long Do Hard Inquiries Stay on a Credit Report?

4 min read

Last Updated: September 12, 2024

Table of contents

Key Takeaways

A hard inquiry appears on your credit report when a lender views your credit report after you apply for a new line of credit.
Unlike soft inquiries, hard inquiries can affect your credit score.
Hard inquiries may stay on your credit report for up to two years.

When you apply for credit, such as a new credit card or a home mortgage loan, the lender will request to review your credit report. This is what’s called a hard inquiry, or credit inquiry, and it can impact your credit. So how long does a hard credit inquiry stay on your credit report before they fall off, and how much do they affect your credit score?

What are hard inquiries?

A hard credit check is when a lender pulls your credit report after you’ve applied for a line of credit, such as for an auto loan, a new mortgage, a personal loan, or a new credit card. Credit checks may impact your credit score, but you don’t necessarily have to worry. In some cases, a hard inquiry won’t cause a significant change to your credit score.

The difference between hard inquiries and soft inquiries

While hard inquiries may affect your credit score, soft inquiries won’t. A soft credit check occurs when you (or a company) check your credit report, but you haven’t applied for credit. For example, a soft credit inquiry can occur when you pull your own credit report to review your credit score, you receive a promotional credit card offer, or the IRS verifies your identity to issue your tax refund. In these cases, a soft inquiry appears on your credit report, but doesn’t affect your credit score.

Does a hard inquiry affect your credit score?

A hard inquiry may affect your credit score, but usually only by a few points. While each hard inquiry may affect your credit score, there are circumstances where many hard inquiries within a short period of time won’t have a larger impact on your score.

For instance, imagine you’re searching for an auto loan or home mortgage loan. You shop around to get the best deal on interest rates and apply to several lenders, resulting in multiple hard inquiries. When you do this search within a short period of time (usually 14-45 days total), it will count the multiple inquiries as one.

Take note: credit scoring models will usually count shopping for loans as a single inquiry, but not when you apply for credit cards. This is because you must sign a final loan agreement to receive a loan, while a credit application is final.

How long do hard credit inquiries stay on your credit report?

Hard inquiries stay on your credit report for up to two years. However, depending on which credit scoring model a major credit bureau uses, most only apply the previous 12 months in your score.

You can request a free copy of all three of your credit reports from annualcreditreport.com. This is the only website authorized to provide a free credit report that you’re entitled to by law. As a Discover cardmember, you can get your free Credit Scorecard with your FICO^® Credit Score and more.¹

If you see a hard inquiry you didn't authorize on your credit report, you can dispute it with the credit bureau, and they’ll investigate (and possibly remove) it.

Reduce the impact of hard inquiries

While hard inquiries can affect your credit score, you can take steps to counteract a negative impact. For example, if you’re shopping for home or auto loans, try to group multiple applications into a short time frame so that they count as one hard inquiry in credit score calculations.

You can also ease the negative effect of a hard inquiry on your credit score by staying on top of your credit score in other ways. For example, making on-time payments and lowering your credit utilization ratio can have a positive impact on your credit score.

Did you know?

When you add available credit while maintaining your current credit use, you can improve your credit utilization ratio (the amount of available credit you're using). If you make on-time payments to your new credit card account, that could help your credit score even further.

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Hard credit checks are a way for lenders to review your credit report when you apply for new credit. When you know what a hard inquiry is and how it affects your credit score, you’ve taken the first step to limiting the overall impact it may have.

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