A credit inquiry is basically when someone looks at your credit information. The important thing to remember here is that there are actually are 2 types of credit inquiries: hard inquiries and soft inquiries. The main difference is that hard inquiries lower your credit score, but soft inquiries do not. Checking your own credit is a soft inquiry, and therefore does not lower your score. Check away.

Hard Inquiry

Hard inquiries occur when a potential lender needs to make a decision on whether or not to offer you credit. A few examples of hard inquiries are:

– Applying for a credit card
– Applying for a mortgage
– Applying for a car loan

Because hard inquiries lower your score, we do not recommend you do any of the above too often.

Soft Inquiry

Soft inquiries occur when your credit is checked as part of a background check. Soft inquiries do not lower your score. A few examples of soft inquiries are

– Checking your own credit score
– Employer checking your credit score

Because soft inquiries do not lower your score, we absolutely suggest you monitor your score regularly. You can do this through any one of these 10 best credit monitoring sites . Keep in mind that there are actually 3 credit bureaus and you may get 3 different scores back because each organization may use different information or algorithms in its calculations. All 3 do calculate your FICO score, but actual number may vary.