The business credit bureaus do not consider a merchant cash advance a loan because it does not improve or build a company’s credit profile. Find out if your lender will run a hard or soft credit check on you. An initial “soft inquiry” is the first step in a credit investigation. There is no negative impact on your FICO score from this type of credit check. Your credit rating will likely suffer when a “hard pull” is done. Inquiries marked as “hard” can reduce your score by five points.