How Often Can a Creditor Pull Your Credit?

Companies with which you do business, and even your employer, can pull your credit report to check financial information. Credit inquiries are recorded each time someone checks your credit and will appear on your credit report. You can see the number of inquiries any time you check your own credit report. Only companies with legitimate business needs can pull your credit, according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Whether a company makes a hard or soft credit inquiry can also affect how the inquiry appears on your credit report.

Limits on Inquiries

There is no legal limit on the number of times a creditor can pull your credit history, according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. However, companies may have internal standards for how often they check credit based on situation. The frequency may be higher for delinquent accounts. There is a limit on how long credit bureaus can keep information on a credit report, ranging from seven to 10 years. Public records and derogatory account information can remain for up to seven years. Chapter 7 bankruptcies and information about closed or inactive accounts can stay on a credit report for up to 10 years. Reports of an unpaid tax lien can remain indefinitely.

Hard Inquiry

Hard credit inquiries are a result of requests for new credit. Hard inquires include applications for a mortgage, auto loan, credit card or personal loan and collection agency skip-tracing. Hard inquiries can, but don't always, affect your credit score. The more hard inquiries you have in a 12-month period, the more likely it is that those inquiries will lower your overall credit score, according to Mint.com, a financial management company.

Soft Inquiry

A soft credit inquiry is a credit check for any reason other than opening new accounts. Examples of soft credit inquiries include pulling your own credit report, preapproval letters sent by lenders and when companies you do business with or your employer periodically views your credit. Soft inquiries will not appear on credit reports and have no impact on a person's overall credit score.

Inquires and Credit Score

You can request that consumer reporting agencies not share your information on mailing lists for solicitation of new credit. Opting out can decrease the number of new credit checks that come with applying for additional credit. Opt out by phone, online or mail. Call 888-567-8688 to notify Experian, Equifax and TransUnion that you want to opt out of prescreened credit offers. You can also opt out at the OptOutPrescreen website. Opting out will not prevent companies you do business with from pulling your credit.