Soft credit pulls will not affect your credit score, but a hard credit pull will impact your credit score. A soft credit pull happens when your credit score is just looked at, but you are not doing so because you are taking out a loan or getting a new credit card. A soft credit pull will only be visible to you when you are looking at your credit history. A hard credit pull or inquiry is when a financial institution or lender looks at your credit score when determining whether or not to provide you with a loan or credit card. These inquiries are likely to negatively impact your score only by a few points. It’s important to not do a hard credit pull before you request a major loan or credit card and to not request many hard pulls in a short span of time.