Yes and no. Taking out a personal loan will show up as a hard inquiry on your credit report, which will drop your credit score by a few points. However, if you pay your loan payments on time and create a positive payment history, this will boost your credit score and demonstrate to future lenders you are responsible with your debt. Ultimately, whether or not a personal loan positively or negatively affects your credit score, in the long run, is determined by how responsibly you complete your loan repayment, how good your credit history is, and what the rest of your financial history looks like. However, only applying for a personal loan without accepting will not yet hurt your credit if you apply through lenders that do a “soft credit check” of your credit report rather than a “hard credit check.” Especially if you plan to apply for personal loans from a variety of different companies, make sure the loan providers do soft inquiries of your credit report until you choose to officially accept the loan. Read More