A soft credit inquiry is a credit check that offers only the basic information about your credit score and doesn’t go into your full credit history. When you check your credit score, this is considered to be a soft credit inquiry. A soft inquiry can also be performed by banks or credit unions when they offer pre-approved credit cards, and it can be performed by employers when doing a background check. Since a soft credit inquiry is not performed for a specific line of credit, it doesn’t leave a trace on your credit report and doesn’t affect your credit score. Typically, only you can see when a soft inquiry has been performed on your credit history.