Can A Hard Pull Affect Your Credit Score? When You Should Worry.

A Credit Pull or "Hard Pull" on your credit report is when someone accesses your credit history and it has an impact on your credit score. Let me emphasize the part has an impact on your credit score. A "Soft Pull" on your credit report can yield the same information but not have an impact on your credit score.

A hard pull is typically done by a lender when determining your credit worthiness in order to determine whether to extend you credit in the means of a loan or credit card. Each time a lender pulls your credit history, it can have an impact on your credit score by as much as 5 points. This hard pull then remains on your credit report for a period of 2 years, however the 5 point hit generally disappears after about 6 months. Since it is common for people to shop around for the best rates on loans, several hard pulls done in the period of a couple of weeks is considered as one pull.

A soft pull on the other hand can happen for various reasons and not have an impact on your credit score. An example would be when you request a copy of your own credit report. This would have no affect on your credit score.

If you are in the market for a home or possibly thinking of refinancing your home, you will want to have the best possible credit score to receive the most favorable terms on your new loan. So if you know that in the next six months, you will be applying for a new home loan or refinancing an existing home loan, be very careful on what other kinds of credit you may be applying for at the same time. Applying for a few credit cards within that six month period may drop your credit score by as much as 15 points. That could mean the difference of possibly 1% on your interest rate terms. And that could mean losing thousands of dollars during the term of that loan.

There are many other steps you could take to get your credit score at its peak before applying for a home loan, let this not be one of the obstacles in getting best interest rate on your new home loan.

William Lingle is the author of a 38 page information packed report covering techniques anybody can use to repair their own credit and avoid bankruptcy, "The Ultimate Credit Repair Guide". Be one of the first 1,000 to claim a free copy of The Ultimate Credit Repair Guide Now!.