Does Checking Your Credit Score Lower It?
No. Checking your own credit score does not lower it. When you request your own score or report, the entry created on your credit file is a soft inquiry, and soft inquiries are not part of the FICO or VantageScore calculation. Hard inquiries come from applications for credit.
This guide is general educational information for U.S. readers. It is not financial advice and does not describe your individual credit file. Figures such as score ranges and timeline estimates are typical examples, not promises.
Key takeaways
- Checking your own credit score creates a soft inquiry, and soft inquiries are not used when a FICO or VantageScore score is calculated.
- Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850.
- Inquiries fall under the new credit category, which carries an approximate weight of 10% in FICO scoring.
- Hard inquiries typically remain on a credit report for 2 years.
- The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers the right to a free credit report from each nationwide agency every 12 months, and the three agencies currently provide free reports weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com.
Checking your own credit score does not lower it. When you ask a credit reporting agency, a card issuer, or a monitoring service for your score, the record created on your credit file is a soft inquiry, and soft inquiries are not part of the calculation that produces a FICO or VantageScore score. The worry is understandable, because a different kind of check — the hard inquiry created when a lender reviews your file for an application — is a scoring input.
What a credit score is built from
A credit score is a number that summarizes the contents of a credit report at a particular moment. Most credit scores, including FICO and VantageScore, use a range of 300 to 850, and the same person can hold different scores at the same time because Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion each maintain a separate file. The three nationwide credit reporting agencies do not share one master record; data reaches each of them from lenders, and one file can contain items another does not.
FICO publishes approximate weights for the categories it considers:
| FICO score factor | Approximate weight |
|---|---|
| Payment history | 35% |
| Amounts owed | 30% |
| Length of credit history | 15% |
| New credit | 10% |
| Credit mix | 10% |
Inquiries belong to the new credit category, which carries an approximate weight of 10%. VantageScore uses its own factor weighting and does not publish fixed percentages, so the same file can be read differently by the two models; FICO vs VantageScore covers those differences. How credit scores are calculated describes each category in more depth, and credit score ranges explained covers how the 300-to-850 scale is divided.
Soft inquiries versus hard inquiries
Credit reporting agencies sort access to your file into two categories. A soft inquiry is created when your report is accessed for a purpose other than a lending decision, or when you access your own information. A hard inquiry is created when a lender pulls your report to evaluate an application you submitted. Scoring models generally look only at the second category.
| Question | Soft inquiry | Hard inquiry |
|---|---|---|
| What usually triggers it | Your own request for your score or report; an account review by a company you already have a relationship with | Your application for a credit card, loan, or another credit product |
| Involves your authorization | Not for your own request | Yes, an application authorizes the lender to pull your file |
| Used in a FICO or VantageScore calculation | No | Yes, under new credit |
| Provided to lenders for lending decisions | No | Yes |
Hard inquiries typically remain on a credit report for 2 years.
Checks generally recorded as soft inquiries
- Requesting your own credit score or credit report from a credit reporting agency, a card issuer, or a monitoring service
- An account review by a creditor you already have a relationship with
- Pre-screened credit offers, where an agency supplies a list of names rather than opening a full file
- Verification checks, including some employment-related reviews, that are coded as inquiries not used in scoring
Checks generally recorded as hard inquiries
- An application for a credit card
- An application for an auto loan, mortgage, personal loan, or student loan
- Some rental and utility applications, depending on how the provider evaluates your file
Why the question keeps coming up
Everyday phrasing blurs a distinction that exists in the file itself. "Checking credit" is used both for a lender's review of an application and for a consumer looking at their own score, but the two produce different entries. One is an inquiry a lender generated for a decision; the other is an inquiry you generated for your own information. Only the first is fed into a scoring model.
Credit monitoring products, described on the credit monitoring page, work by retrieving your own information on an ongoing basis, and that access is treated as a soft inquiry. The credit check page explains what a lender's review actually examines when an application is submitted, and the credit profile page describes how the pieces of a file fit together.
How scoring models treat inquiries over time
Inquiries are one of the smaller inputs in a score. Within the new credit category, recency matters: an inquiry recorded recently generally carries more weight than one recorded many months earlier, and hard inquiries typically drop off a credit report after 2 years. Multiple applications for the same type of loan submitted within a short shopping period are generally grouped by scoring models and treated as a single shopping event, which is why comparison shopping for a mortgage or an auto loan is handled differently from opening several unrelated new accounts.
For context on relative weight, payment history carries an approximate weight of 35% in FICO scoring and amounts owed an approximate weight of 30%. Our pages on payment history and credit utilization describe those larger categories in detail. The credit score hub at Credit Scores collects the full set of guides.
What federal law says about checking your own information
The Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. section 1681, was enacted in 1970 and amended by the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act in 2003. It gives consumers the right to a free credit report from each nationwide agency every 12 months, and the three agencies currently provide free reports weekly through AnnualCreditReport.com. The Federal Trade Commission explains how to obtain those reports, and the statutory text is published at Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains consumer tools on credit reports and scores; the agency was created by the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and began operating in 2011.
The same law sets rules beyond access. A credit reporting agency generally must investigate a dispute within 30 days, and the period can extend to 45 days if the consumer provides additional information during the initial 30-day period. Most negative information, including late payments, stays on a credit report for 7 years. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy stays for 10 years, and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays for 7 years. The credit reports hub covers how those items are recorded and disputed. For broader market context, the Federal Reserve's G.19 release reports total outstanding consumer credit in the United States.
Freezes, alerts, and identity theft
Protections attached to your file are separate from score checks. A security freeze is free to place, temporarily lift, or remove under federal law, and the credit freeze page explains how a freeze restricts access to a report. An initial fraud alert lasts 1 year, and an extended fraud alert lasts 7 years. FCRA section 605A covers fraud alerts at 15 U.S.C. section 1681c-1, and section 605B covers identity theft report blocking at 15 U.S.C. section 1681c-2.
If your identity is stolen, you can report it at IdentityTheft.gov and to the IRS using Form 14039. The identity theft page describes what happens to a credit file after a stolen identity is reported and how a blocked item is handled. A related product, a credit lock, differs from a freeze in how it is enforced; that comparison appears on the credit lock page.
None of these actions require an application for credit, so none of them creates a hard inquiry. Reading your own report, viewing your own score, placing a freeze, or filing a dispute all leave the new credit category of a score untouched. This page is for education only and is not financial advice.
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Frequently asked questions
Does checking your own credit score lower it?
No. A request for your own score or credit report is recorded as a soft inquiry, and soft inquiries are not used when a FICO or VantageScore score is calculated.
Does checking your credit report count as a hard inquiry?
Access to your own report is treated as a soft inquiry. A hard inquiry is created when a lender reviews your file to evaluate an application you submitted.
How long does a hard inquiry stay on a credit report?
Hard inquiries typically remain on a credit report for 2 years. Their influence within the new credit category is generally strongest near the date of the application.
Is checking your credit score bad in any situation?
No single check changes a score. The event that enters a scoring model is a hard inquiry generated by an application for credit, and inquiries carry an approximate weight of 10% in FICO scoring as part of the new credit category.
Do several mortgage or auto loan applications count as separate inquiries?
Scoring models generally group inquiries for the same type of loan made within a short shopping period and treat them as one shopping event, rather than counting each application separately.
Does a credit monitoring service affect a credit score?
A monitoring service retrieves your own information, which is treated as a soft inquiry. Soft inquiries are not used in the FICO or VantageScore calculation.
Related guides
- How Credit Scores Are Calculated
- Fico Vs Vantagescore
- Credit Score Ranges Explained
- Credit Utilization Explained
- Payment History And Credit Scores