A soft credit check is an initial look at certain information on an individual’s credit report.

Companies perform soft searches to decide how successful your application would be without conducting a full examination of your credit history.

Soft searches often have no impact on their credit score or any future credit applications you might make. You can see them on your report and how many there are but other companies cannot, which is why it won’t impact their score (no matter how many of them there are).

A hard credit check happens when a company makes a complete, thorough search of the individual’s credit report, typically used when someone is applying for credit. Each hard check is recorded on their report, so any other company searching it will be able to see when they’ve applied for credit.

Too many hard credit checks over a short period of time can affect your credit score for six months, reducing your ability to get approved for credit in the future.

Examples of when a hard credit check can happen:

Most hard searches will stay on your credit report for 12 months – although some, such as debt collection checks, can stay for longer.

Canopy do not conduct any hard searches in order for you to make the most out of our credit building tools.