People obsess over hard inquiries because they sound dramatic. They're not — 5–10 points, gone in 12 months. The credit event that actually costs more, lasts longer, and gets no headlines is a credit card the bank closes for inactivity. Below: the inquiry mechanics, and the worse score event hiding in plain sight.

The short answer

Hard inquiries cost 5–10 points and fully drop off your score after 12 months. Soft inquiries cost nothing. The bigger threat to your score isn't either: it's a dormant card the bank closes, which removes its limit from your utilization denominator and eventually erodes your average account age.

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Hard inquiries: the kind that count

A hard pull happens when you formally apply for new credit. The lender pulls your full report, evaluates it, and the inquiry is logged.

Triggers:

  • Credit-card, auto-loan, mortgage, and personal-loan applications
  • Some apartment rentals, utility openings, and cellphone contracts
  • Credit-limit increase requests at some issuers (see below)

Score impact:

  • 5–10 points typically — more for thin-file profiles, less for mature ones
  • Fully active for 12 months, then stops affecting your score
  • Disappears from the report entirely after 24 months

FICO's rate-shopping window lumps multiple inquiries for the same loan type within 14–45 days into a single inquiry. Mortgage and auto-loan shopping benefit; credit-card applications don't — each card pull is its own inquiry.

5–10 points temporary. Inactivity closure: permanent damage. ActiveCred runs a tiny authorized charge on every linked card monthly — so no card crosses the bank's silent inactivity threshold. Plans from $0.99/mo.
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Soft inquiries: the kind that don't

Soft pulls happen when someone looks at your credit without you having applied for new credit. They're logged but don't affect your score.

  • Pre-approval mailers ("you're pre-qualified")
  • Your own credit checks (Credit Karma, issuer apps, myFICO)
  • Employer background checks
  • Account-management reviews by existing creditors
  • Insurance pricing
  • CLI requests at some issuers (below)

Soft inquiries appear on your copy of the report but typically aren't visible to other lenders.

The credit-limit increase question, per issuer

CLI requests are the most common place this distinction matters in routine credit management. Pull type is issuer discretion:

  • Always soft: Capital One, Discover
  • Usually soft: Chase (some product types trigger hard pulls — ask first)
  • Usually hard: Bank of America, Citi, American Express

Before submitting, call and ask: "Will this be a hard or soft pull?" Thirty seconds, potentially 5–10 score points saved. Full CLI strategy here.

Hard-inquiry hygiene

  • Cluster major-loan shopping inside a 14-day window — multiple mortgage or auto quotes count as one inquiry.
  • Space credit-card applications 6+ months apart.
  • Zero new inquiries in the 6 months before a mortgage application. Pre-mortgage checklist.
  • Dispute unknown hard inquiries — they can indicate identity theft.

The bigger threat: inactivity closure

A hard inquiry costs 5–10 points and is gone in 12 months. Compare that to what happens when the bank closes a card you haven't used in months:

  • Utilization spike (permanent until rebuilt). The closed card's credit limit disappears from your denominator. If it was a high-limit card, every other balance you carry now reads as a higher utilization ratio. That's a 30%-weighted FICO factor moving the wrong direction.
  • Account-age erosion (delayed but worse). Closed accounts stay on your report for 10 years. When the 10-year clock runs out, your average account age recalculates downward — sometimes years later, by which time you've forgotten the card existed.
  • The "closed by credit grantor" mark sits on your report and can prompt manual underwriting questions for years.

And unlike a hard inquiry, you have no advance warning. Banks don't email you "we're about to close this card." They just do it. Three methods to keep an unused card open.

Bottom line

Hard inquiries are a small temporary cost — manageable with basic timing discipline. The credit event that quietly does more damage is an inactivity-driven closure, and it's the one most people don't see coming. Optimize for both: avoid stacking hard pulls near major applications, and keep your unused cards out of the bank's closure queue.