Also referred to as a soft inquiry, soft search or soft credit pull, these usually occur when you authorise someone to check your credit report held with a Credit Reference Agency. In contrast to a hard credit search which are attached to an 'application for credit', soft searches don't affect your credit rating. The more hard searches you do, the more you can be seen as a risk to potential credit providers. A soft credit search doesn't leave an imprint on your file so won't have the same impact. Which is why many credit providers in the UK use this during the pre-approval stage.