Soft credit inquiries have no impact on your credit score, while hard credit inquiries can have a minor impact on your score.
Two types of soft credit inquiries are – marketing pre-screen credit checks (pre-approval letters for financial products you receive in the mail) and consumer-initiated inquiries (checking your score through a credit bureau, checking your rate for a loan, etc.)
Credit Bureaus place a hard inquiry on your credit report when a potential lender pulls your credit to decide whether to approve your application.
If you’d like a more in-depth explanation of this topic, check out our article The Difference Between Hard and Soft Inquiries.