Soft and hard credit checks, and when each one happens

One of the most common worries people have before they start looking at mortgages is whether the research itself will damage their credit score. The short answer is: it depends on the type of credit check. Understanding the difference between a soft check and a hard check makes the whole mortgage journey feel a lot less daunting.

What is a credit check?

When a lender, broker, or service wants to look at your credit history, they contact one or more of the UK's three main credit reference agencies: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Each agency holds a record of your borrowing history, including things like credit cards, loans, missed payments, and whether you are on the electoral roll.

The information these agencies hold about you forms your credit file. Lenders use your credit file to help understand how you have managed debt in the past. You have a right to see your own credit file, and all three agencies offer a way to do this.

Not all credit checks are the same, though. There are two types: soft checks and hard checks.

Soft checks: visible only to you

A soft credit check lets a service look at certain information from your credit file without leaving a mark that other lenders can see. The check appears on your own file, so you can always see what has been accessed and by whom. But it is not visible to other lenders reviewing your file.

Crucially, a soft check does not affect your credit score. Running one has no bearing on how future lenders assess you.

Soft checks are used in situations where a formal credit application has not been made. Comparison services, for example, often run soft checks when showing you indicative rates. Some services run one when you sign up, before any full application is made. Checking your own credit file through a reference agency is also a soft check.

The idea is that you should be able to understand your own financial position without those exploratory steps counting against you.

Hard checks: recorded on your file

A hard credit check is different. It is a full search of your credit file that is recorded and visible to other lenders for a period of time. Hard checks typically happen when you make a formal application for credit: for example, when you formally apply for a mortgage, a personal loan, or a credit card.

Because a hard check signals that you are actively seeking credit, several hard checks in a short period can be read negatively by lenders. It may suggest financial stress or that you have applied to multiple lenders in quick succession. This does not automatically disqualify you, but it is a factor some lenders weigh.

This is why it matters to understand when a hard check is triggered, and to avoid unnecessary ones.

Where each check appears in a mortgage journey

A typical mortgage journey involves several stages, and different checks happen at different points.

When you are researching your options, looking at calculators, or getting a rough sense of what you might be able to borrow, you are generally in soft-check territory. The same is true when you check your own credit file to understand your starting point.

Decisions in principle, sometimes called agreements in principle or mortgage promises, sit in a grey area. Practice varies by lender: some run a soft check at this stage, others run a hard check. It is worth asking your broker or lender which type of check they carry out before you proceed, so there are no surprises on your file.

Once you make a full mortgage application, a hard check is standard. This is expected, and most lenders understand that a single hard check at the point of formal application is a normal part of the process.

The practical upshot is that the exploratory stages of a mortgage search, done thoughtfully, need not leave any mark on your credit file at all.

Checking your own position costs your score nothing

One thing worth emphasising: checking your own credit file is a soft check. It is your file, and you are entitled to see it. Reviewing it regularly is sensible, especially before a major application, because it lets you spot errors or outdated information that you can ask to have corrected.

If a lender or a service tells you that checking your own position will hurt your score, that is not accurate. Only a hard check affects your score, and hard checks are initiated by lenders or services making a formal search, not by you viewing your own file.

How Moxim approaches credit checks

When Moxim builds a readiness picture from your real connected data, which opens with early access, a soft credit check made with your explicit authorisation is one input. That check is visible only on your own file and does not affect your credit score or your standing with any lender. The illustrative experience you can explore today runs no credit check at all.

The goal is a portable credential you own: an honest read of where you stand, drawn from your own Open Banking data and your credit profile, that you can take to any broker without having committed to any lender or left a hard footprint on your file.

For more on soft checks, read-only bank access, and who sees your data, see our frequently asked questions.

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Everything Moxim shows today is illustrative and educational, never a quote, an offer, or a lending decision. Moxim is not yet PRA-authorised or FCA-regulated. If you would like to see where you stand, see the experience.