The honest answer is "it depends which step you're on" — a matching service's initial check and a lender's final approval step affect your credit very differently. Here's exactly what happens at each stage.
Soft Pulls: The Pre-Check Step
When you submit a request through a matching service, the initial check that surfaces potential offers is typically a soft inquiry. Soft inquiries don't affect your credit score at all, aren't visible to other lenders, and you can have as many as you want without any credit cost.
Hard Pulls: The Final Approval Step
Once you accept a specific offer, the lender you chose typically runs a hard inquiry to finalize approval. A hard inquiry can lower your score by a small amount — commonly cited as roughly 5 to 10 points, though the exact impact varies by scoring model and your existing credit profile — and stays on your report for about two years, though its effect on your score fades well before then.
What Actually Determines the Damage
- Number of hard pulls in a short window — scoring models generally treat multiple hard inquiries for the same loan type within a short rate-shopping period (commonly 14–45 days depending on the model) as a single inquiry.
- Your existing credit file — a thin credit file tends to see a larger point swing from a single hard inquiry than an established file with a long history.
- What else changes at the same time — a new account opening, not just the inquiry itself, is what most affects your average account age and utilization going forward.
| Stage | Inquiry Type | Credit Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Matching / pre-qualification | Soft pull | None |
| Accepting a specific offer | Hard pull | Small, temporary — fades faster than it stays on your report |
| New account opened | N/A | Affects average account age and utilization, separate from the inquiry itself |
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