Hard Credit Searches

ConsistentlyLost

Hi all!

I'm curious as to how bigger an impact hard searches on credit reports have when applying for mortgages. I've heard that it can depend on how many of them appear on the reports and in what duration of time they've taken place but I wondered if it also depends on what the hard searches were for. So would hard searches performed for credit cards, mobile phone contracts and loans have a bigger impact on mortgage applications rather than say opening current accounts? Thanks in advance folks!

K_S

@ConsistentlyLost Generally speaking, for most applicants, 1-2 recent hard-footprints on your report should not have a huge impact on a mortgage application.

One scenario in which it may have an impact are when you are borderline on the lender "credit-scoring" (nothing to do with your Experian/Clearscore/CreditKarma credit scores) to start with, in which case a extra hard search could be something that tips it over from an accept into a decline. Mainstream lender credit-scoring is done at the soft-check (with most lenders) DIP stage, so there's no harm done to your credit history if it's fails a DIP due to 'credit-score'.

I don't have an answer to your question about the differing impacts of the types of hard-footprints.

ACG

As far as I am aware a hard credit check is a hard credit check. 

How much affect it has is not really an exact science. There are many different factors, as you say how many credit checks, how long ago, what your credit report was like to begin with etc.