Soft Pull or Hard Pull? No not that....Credit Inquiries!

Ever pull your credit report and wonder what the difference between "Regular Inquiries" and "Promotional Inquiries" was?  Have you been reading up on your favorite credit repair website and run across terms like "hard pull" or "soft pull"?  All of these terms refer to instances in which a company or entity requests your credit file from one or more of the three major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).  A soft pull, or promotional inquiry, is a credit request that does not affect your credit score in any way.  Credit card companies, insurance agencies, and various other types of companies use these reports to determine whether or not to offer you some product or service they're trying to sell.  A regular inquiry, otherwise known as a hard pull is an inquiry that will negatively impact your credit score and is the kind of credit request made by companies that you are either attempting to open a credit account with or perhaps a company that you already have credit with.  These types of inquiries in excess can reduce your credit score.

FYI, you can "opt-out" of promotional inquiries if you so choose by navigating to http://www.optoutprescreen.com .  By opting out, you disable the credit reporting agencies from selling your information to companies like the ones offering you bogus credit cards and car insurance.  After opting out, only companies with permissible purpose can pull your credit.  You may think that you'll miss out on some great offer, but in my experience, the credit accounts offered by most of these companies are less than desirable.  When the time comes to open a new credit account or switch car insurance, you'll do the research and find better offers anyway (I know you will....you're smart...I can tell by lookin' at ya! ;-).

Also, for those of you that are beginning your journey toward credit repair, opting out is the very first step!  Some companies use information found in your credit report to verify debts and negative information that resides in your credit report.  Many of these companies do not  have permissible right to attain your credit report if you opt-out leaving them in a much less favorable position.  In other words, opting out makes it more difficult for creditors and/or collection agencies to verify negative information which in turn makes getting a deletion much more likely.