Credit Inquiries: Ask Before You Apply
Checking your own credit is a soft inquiry. A lender application may involve a hard inquiry; ask what will happen before submitting it.
Shopping for a boat should not require guessing what each “check your options” button does to your credit.
Soft and hard are different
Checking your own report does not reduce your FICO score. A credit application may create a hard inquiry. Ask whether a prequalification involves a soft or hard inquiry and whether a later application will involve another pull. Do not assume every lender uses the same process.
A credit-limit request may or may not require a hard inquiry. Ask the issuer before requesting it. There is no fixed number of points every inquiry costs every borrower.
Do boat applications receive rate-shopping treatment?
FICO describes special treatment for mortgage, auto and student-loan shopping. Do not automatically extend those rules to every boat application or every scoring model. The way an inquiry is classified matters.
Be deliberate
Understand where your application will go and why. Avoid opening unrelated credit simply because you are already in a borrowing frame of mind. A new account can change more than the inquiry count—it can change your obligations and the file the lender is evaluating.
Ask me about the application process before you submit. That is a reasonable question, not an inconvenience.
Keep reading
Sources and further reading
Have a boat in mind? Send me the listing through YourBoatMoney, or ask ScotBot to help you get started. You do not need every answer before we talk.
Educational information, not a loan offer or guarantee of approval. Requirements depend on the lender and transaction.