Will a pre-approval credit inquiry hurt my credit score?

When you submit a pre-approval or loan application to any lender, they will order your credit report (“credit inquiry”). In turn, this can cause concern that each credit “inquiry” will have a negative impact on your credit score, but don’t worry, most credit bureaus use a Fair Isaac Company (FICO) Scores model to calculate credit scores. According to Fair Isaac’s website (myfico.com), FICO Scores ignore loan inquiries made in the 30 days prior to scoring. So, if you move forward with a loan within 30 days, the inquiries won’t affect your scores while you are shopping.

In addition, FICO Scores look on your credit report for inquiries older than 30 days. If FICO Scores find some, the scoring model will consider inquiries that fall into a typical shopping period as just one inquiry. FICO’s newer scoring models consider 45 days the “typical shopping period.” Older versions define it as any 14-day span.

Get pre-approved in as little as 1 hour by applying on our fast and easy online application portal.

Learn more about the pre-approval process

Did this answer your question? Thanks for the feedback There was a problem submitting your feedback. Please try again later.

Still need help? Contact Us Contact Us