What is a "Hard" and "Soft" inquiry and how do you tell the difference between them? What is the difference between them and the impact on a credit report?
A hard inquiry is one normally pulled for new credit, and it shows on your credit report. A soft inquiry is on a creditor pulls for account maintenance or promotional purposes, and it doesn't show on your credit report (expect the copy you receive when you check your report). At least, that's hope it's supposed to work. Depending on the creditor, a request for a credit line increases will be done via either a hard or soft inquiry. I have no idea if the creditor sees more when pulling a hard inquiry instead of a soft inquiry.
