How does a credit inquiry affect my credit score?

A hard inquiry — when a lender pulls your credit to make a lending decision — can lower your FICO score by 2–10 points and stays on your report for 2 years, though most scoring impact fades after 12 months. A soft inquiry — when you check your own score or a creditor does a pre-approval check — does not affect your score at all. When shopping for the best mortgage or auto loan rate, FICO scoring models group multiple hard inquiries for the same type of loan within a 14–45 day window and count them as a single inquiry. This encourages rate comparison shopping without major score penalties.