Soft Check v Hard Check

NewUser1972

Hi everyone. Does anyone actually know the difference between a hard and soft credit check as far as a lender is concerned? Anything I find online states the obvious (one leaves a mark visible to others and one doesn't) but suggests both show your credit history and utilisation. For example how can some people pass a lenders eligibility check and then fail a full application? What do they see from a full check versus a soft check? Thanks!

MrSilk

No one really knows. Possibly with a soft check they check affordability and any public information? then with a hard check they check for any defaults/late payments? Who knows 

DullGreyGuy

MrSilk said:

No one really knows. Possibly with a soft check they check affordability and any public information? then with a hard check they check for any defaults/late payments? Who knows 

Lots of people will know because there are people out there that design systems that integrate with the CRAs to do soft and hard searches, developers who then code it, testers who make sure its working etc. Some will be in software houses, some in banks/lenders/ comparison sites and naturally the guys on the otherside too who work for Experian etc.

My only project involving CRAs was just getting that virtually unused credit score from Experian and so didnt go into the detail of differences between search types. Looking at CompareTheMarket's FAQ however they state the difference is the level of detail on current/previous credit. So soft search may only give limit, balance and any count of issues whereas hard search will show what payments are made, how balance has moved over time, when the late payments/over limits happened etc

NewUser1972

DullGreyGuy said:

MrSilk said:

No one really knows. Possibly with a soft check they check affordability and any public information? then with a hard check they check for any defaults/late payments? Who knows 

Lots of people will know because there are people out there that design systems that integrate with the CRAs to do soft and hard searches, developers who then code it, testers who make sure its working etc. Some will be in software houses, some in banks/lenders/ comparison sites and naturally the guys on the otherside too who work for Experian etc.

My only project involving CRAs was just getting that virtually unused credit score from Experian and so didnt go into the detail of differences between search types. Looking at CompareTheMarket's FAQ however they state the difference is the level of detail on current/previous credit. So soft search may only give limit, balance and any count of issues whereas hard search will show what payments are made, how balance has moved over time, when the late payments/over limits happened etc

This is what I had hoped - that one of the many hundreds/thousands of users of this forum might work for or have worked for a company who ingest data from a CRA who could share it. There is no need to betray any credit scoring secrets, just an overview of what is different with each check.  This would help people who pass a soft check but fail an application to understand what it was about the full check that might have made the difference.  I dont rely too much on third party soft check sites but more on the actual credit institution themselves as I assume that they use some kind of scoring mechanism in the soft check anyway. Thanks

th081

Your right to not rely on third party soft check sites. Last month through mse I had a 90% acceptance for Santander and promptly failed the hard search, this month going through MBNA they were showing me as 100% acceptance on the soft search and thankfully that applied to the hard search -10k limit