Is Checking Your Credit Score Bad? (Spoiler: It’s Not)
Published by Speed Credit
Table of Contents
- Will Checking My Credit Score Hurt It?
- Hard Inquiries vs. Soft Inquiries: What’s the Difference?
- How Many Hard Pulls Is Too Many?
- Best Tools to Check and Monitor Your Credit Safely
- What Lenders See When They Check Your Credit
- Next Up: Should You Pay Off Collections? Here’s What Actually Helps
Will Checking My Credit Score Hurt It?
No. When you check your own credit score, it’s called a soft inquiry. It doesn’t affect your score at all—and you can do it as often as you like. In fact, regularly checking your score is one of the best ways to protect it.
Hard Inquiries vs. Soft Inquiries: What’s the Difference?
| Type | Does It Affect Score? | Who Uses It? |
|---|---|---|
| Soft Inquiry | No | You, credit monitoring apps, pre-approval checks |
| Hard Inquiry | Yes (slightly) | Lenders, banks, credit card companies |
Hard pulls = loan/credit applications.
Soft pulls = you just want to look.
How Many Hard Pulls Is Too Many?
- 1–2 hard inquiries = no big deal
- 3–5 = small temporary dip (a few points)
- 6+ in a short time = red flag to lenders
Pro Tip: When rate shopping (for mortgages, auto loans, or student loans), FICO treats all hard pulls within a 14–45 day window as one inquiry.
Best Tools to Check and Monitor Your Credit Safely
Here are some credit-friendly tools you can use daily, weekly, or monthly with zero impact:
- Credit Karma – Free VantageScores and report monitoring
- Experian – FICO score, dark web monitoring, and Experian Boost
- AnnualCreditReport.com – Free full credit reports from all 3 bureaus
- myFICO – Your actual FICO scores used by lenders
What Lenders See When They Check Your Credit
When a lender does a hard pull, they see:
- Your FICO score (or industry-specific version)
- Credit utilization
- Account age, payment history, and mix
- Recent inquiries
- Any negative marks (collections, defaults, etc.)
They don’t care that you’ve been checking your own score. That’s actually smart credit behavior.
Next Up: Should You Pay Off Collections? Here’s What Actually Helps
Think paying off collections will fix your credit overnight? Not so fast. In the next post, we’ll explain what happens to your score when you pay—and what you should do first. Read it here: Should You Pay Off Collections?
