You can check your credit inquiries by pulling your credit report from any of the three major bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Every inquiry, whether you initiated it or someone else did, is logged on your report with the date and the name of the company that requested it. You can access your reports for free at AnnualCreditReport.com, or use a free credit monitoring tool to track new inquiries as they happen.
Where to Find Your Inquiries
The most direct way to see all your credit inquiries is to pull your official credit report. AnnualCreditReport.com lets you request a free report from each of the three bureaus once per year. On each report, inquiries are listed in their own section, typically near the bottom. You’ll see the name of the company that checked your credit, the date of the inquiry, and whether it was a hard or soft pull.
Keep in mind that each bureau may show different inquiries. A lender might pull your report from only one bureau, so an inquiry that appears on your Experian report may not show up on your TransUnion report. To get the full picture, check all three.
Hard Inquiries vs. Soft Inquiries
Your credit report separates inquiries into two categories, and only one of them affects your credit score.
A hard inquiry happens when a lender checks your credit because you applied for a loan, credit card, or other form of credit. You have to give permission for this type of pull. Hard inquiries stay on your report for two years and can temporarily lower your credit score, though scores typically recover within a few months as long as you’re keeping up with payments.
A soft inquiry happens when your credit is checked for reasons unrelated to a lending decision. Checking your own credit is a soft inquiry. So is a landlord screening your application, an employer running a background check, or a credit card company sending you a pre-approval offer. Soft inquiries don’t require your permission in every case, and they have no effect on your credit score. They still appear on your report, but only you can see them. Lenders reviewing your credit don’t see soft inquiries.
Free Monitoring Tools That Track Inquiries
If you want to know about new inquiries without manually pulling your reports, free credit monitoring services can send you alerts when a hard inquiry is added. Several well-known options don’t require you to be an existing customer of the company offering them.
- CreditWise from Capital One: Free for anyone, even without a Capital One account. Provides ongoing monitoring and alerts for changes to your credit file, including new hard inquiries.
- Chase Credit Journey: Also free for non-customers. Includes credit monitoring and up to $1 million in identity theft recovery coverage.
- American Express MyCredit Guide: Offers monitoring through Experian along with a credit score simulator and detailed report access.
- Experian IdentityWorks Basic: Monitors your Experian report and includes a one-time dark web scan for your Social Security number, email, and phone number.
These tools generally alert you to hard inquiries, new accounts opened in your name, balance and payment changes, address or name updates on your file, and public records like bankruptcies. Setting up at least one of them gives you a running log of activity without needing to remember to check your report manually.
How Often to Check
If you’re not actively applying for credit, checking your inquiries once or twice a year through your free annual reports is usually enough. If you’re in the middle of applying for a mortgage or auto loan, or if you suspect someone may be using your identity, check more frequently. Free monitoring tools make this easy since they’ll notify you in real time when something new appears.
Rate shopping for a mortgage, auto loan, or student loan within a short window (generally 14 to 45 days, depending on the scoring model) counts as a single inquiry for scoring purposes. So if you see multiple hard pulls from mortgage lenders within the same couple of weeks, your score isn’t taking a hit for each one individually.
How to Dispute an Unauthorized Inquiry
If you spot a hard inquiry you don’t recognize, it could be a sign of identity theft, or it could be a company name you don’t immediately connect to a transaction you actually authorized. Before filing a dispute, contact the company listed on the inquiry and ask for details. Some businesses operate under different names than their consumer-facing brands, so what looks unfamiliar may turn out to be legitimate.
If you confirm the inquiry wasn’t authorized, you can dispute it directly with the credit bureau that shows it. Each bureau has an online dispute center where you can flag the specific inquiry and submit your case. Gather any supporting documentation you have, such as screenshots, correspondence, or evidence that you didn’t apply for credit with that company. The bureau is required to investigate, and the process typically wraps up within 30 days. If the investigation confirms the inquiry was unauthorized, it gets removed from your report. If it’s found to be valid, it stays.
You can also place a fraud alert or credit freeze on your reports if you believe someone is applying for credit in your name. A fraud alert tells lenders to verify your identity before approving new accounts, while a freeze blocks access to your report entirely until you lift it. Both are free to set up with each bureau.