Credit Card Glossary: Terms and Definitions

Hard pull

A hard pull is a credit scoring term that describes an initial step taken by lenders in evaluating consumers’ loan applications.The potential lender checks the consumer’s credit report, which creates a small negative impact on the consumer’s credit score. An occasional hard pull has only a small negative impact on a credit score. Hard pulls stay on your credit report for two years. What hurts a credit score most are multiple hard pulls over a long period, which the credit scoring algorithms treat with suspicion, since they could signal hard times have befallen the borrower. A hard pull is also known as a “hard inquiry.”