Soft credit searches - what action to take

Dilbert_Investor

I have had 3 soft searches appear on my credit record over the weekend - barclaycard, capital one and QLFY. The search type is shown on all three as NA.

I have no connection with those company, and have not applied for anything recently. I also have used any price comparison sites.

I’m assuming this is fraudulent, but there is no clear advice on the credit providers site about what to do next. Does anyone have any suggestions?

sammyjammy

Companies can soft search you without it being triggered by something you've done. Unlikely to be fraudulent.

Exodi

I wouldn't lose sleep over it. As @sammyjammy mentioned, it doesn't always have to be specifically for something you've just done. For example, some CRA's will regularly perform soft searches.

It could also be those are the underlying creditors for some services you are using. Do you have any credit cards?

As an example, Ocean Finance acts as a broker for Capital One.

CliveOfIndia

Soft searches are nothing to be concerned about. It could be something as innocuous as marketing - the companies are just looking for people who meet a certain set of criteria in order to send out advertising mailshots.

Soft searches are only visible to you - any other lender who looks at your credit file can't see them.

MyRealNameToo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6655706/soft-credit-searches-what-action-to-take

Have you ever used an aggregator like Confused.com or ClearScore? Their T&Cs can allow them and their partners to run stuff periodically in the background to prepare their email saying your renewal quote is likely to go down or your are likely to be accepted for X new credit cards etc

Soft searches generally arent anything to worry about. No one is apply for credit in your name without you knowing if just soft searches are being made. It's hard searches that are more of a worry as that can be an application for credit.