Not all credit checks are created equal. Whether you're a patient exploring financing options or a healthcare practice looking to offer them, understanding which type of inquiry a lender is running — and what it means for your credit score — matters more than you think. Compared to other aspects of financing, it's one of the strongest drivers of how patients engage with lenders, and ultimately, whether they say yes to care.

What Is a Soft Credit Check?

A soft credit check — also called a soft pull or soft credit inquiry — is a review of your credit file that has no effect on your credit score. These checks provide a limited snapshot of your credit information, and they can happen with or without you actively applying for something.

A few examples: a lender might run a soft pull before sending you a pre-approved offer. A landlord might conduct one as part of a background check. You trigger one yourself every time you look up your own credit score.

Soft inquiries do appear on your credit report — but only you can see them. Other lenders and financial institutions cannot see the soft pulls on your file.

Common soft credit checks

• Checking your own credit score or credit report
• Pre-qualification and preapproval offers from a lender
• Background checks by employers or landlords
• Insurance quotes from insurance companies
• Credit monitoring service reviews of your file
• Pre-screened credit card offers
• BNPL (buy now, pay later) applications

Does a Soft Credit Check Affect Your Credit Score?

No — soft credit checks have absolutely no impact on your credit score, regardless of how many appear on your report or how frequently they occur.

The two most widely used credit scoring models — FICO and VantageScore — both exclude soft inquiries from their calculations entirely. When either model calculates your score, soft pulls simply don't factor in.

For patients, this means you can check your own credit score or credit report as often as you like without concern. For practices, this is an important distinction to communicate: patients who know a financing check won't hurt their score are far more likely to explore their options and move forward with treatment.

What Is a Hard Credit Check?

A hard credit check — also called a hard pull or hard credit inquiry — is triggered when you formally apply for new credit. Unlike soft pulls, hard inquiries do affect your credit score, and they require your explicit authorization.

The score impact is typically small — often just a few points — and temporary. For most people, a single hard pull is barely noticeable. The effect fades within a few months, and the inquiry falls off your credit report after two years.

Rate shopping exception: if you submit multiple credit applications for the same loan type within a short period — comparing mortgage or auto loan offers, for example — most credit scoring models group those hard inquiries together and count them as a single inquiry.

Common hard credit checks

• Mortgage loan applications
• Auto loan and car loan applications
• Credit card applications (including new credit card offers you choose to pursue)
• Personal loan and student loan applications
• Line of credit requests
• Requests for a higher credit limit
• Formal financing through a lender or financial institution

What Shows Up on a Hard Credit Check

When a lender runs a hard credit check, they receive a detailed picture of your financial history compiled by one or more of the three major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. A full credit report typically includes:

• Payment history — whether you've paid past bills on time (the single largest factor in most scoring models)
• Credit utilization — how much of your available credit you're currently using
• Length of credit history — how long your accounts have been open
• Types of credit — the mix of credit cards, loans, and other accounts in your file
• New credit — recent credit applications and hard credit inquiries

Lenders use this information to assess your creditworthiness — how likely you are to repay what you borrow. That assessment directly affects whether you're approved and what interest rates you'll be offered. For practices, understanding this helps you set patient expectations around approvals and financing terms.

Soft Check vs Hard Check: What Lenders Can See

• Soft check: limited overview, visible only to you, no consent required, no score impact
• Hard check: full credit report, visible to other lenders, always requires your consent, temporarily affects your score
• Both types appear on your personal credit report and remain for up to two years

Patients who review their own credit report before applying are better prepared — and practices that encourage this upfront often see smoother, faster financing conversations.

Does Cherry Do a Soft or Hard Credit Check?

Cherry uses a soft credit check to check eligibility — patients' scores stay safe and completely unchanged.

When patients check whether they qualify for Cherry Payment Plans, Cherry runs a soft credit pull. Finding out whether they're eligible takes zero points off their credit score. Patients can check their eligibility, explore financing options, and take their time deciding — all without any impact to their credit health.

For practices, this is a meaningful advantage. One of the most common reasons patients hesitate to pursue financing is fear of what a credit check might do to their score. When your team can honestly say "checking your eligibility won't affect your credit," that hesitation largely disappears — and case acceptance goes up.

Cherry's process is also fully transparent: the application always uses a soft credit check only — so patients never have to worry about an unexpected hard inquiry on their credit report, no matter where they are in the process.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to patient financing, the difference between a soft and hard credit check isn't just a technical detail — it's a trust signal. Patients who understand that checking their eligibility won't touch their credit score are far more likely to explore their options, ask questions, and ultimately say yes to the care they need.

For practices, leading with that transparency isn't just good communication — it's good business. And with Cherry's soft-pull-only process, it's also simply the truth.

Whether you're a patient looking for a way to make treatment work, or a practice looking to help more people say yes — Cherry makes financing a conversation worth having. Find out why Cherry is offered first over its competitors more than 80% of the time. Claim your personalized demo today.