I am considering applying for a secured card. The card issuers I have been considering applying to state that they do not do a credit check (i.e., check credit "history") on the applicant, rather they just verify the name, social security number, and address appearing on the report, presumably to make sure they are dealing with the actual person who is applying. Does anyone out there know if this type of limited inquiry into my report constitutes a "hard" inquiry or a "soft" inquiry, and will it lower my credit score? I want to limit my inquiries to help my score out and prefer not to have a hard inquiry if I can in any way avoid it.
I'm not psoitive but I'll take a gander. If they do not "pull" your report officially it should be a softie. Make sure that you do NOT give them permission to pull an inquiry if you do not want them to. You do get some "hard" inquiries allowed--apparently we're not allowed to know how many
