Soft credit check
If you’re thinking of getting car finance at some point you’ll need to have a credit check. There are two kinds of credit check: a soft credit check (also called a soft search) and a hard credit check (or hard search). But what’s the difference and why does it matter?
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What is a soft credit check?
A soft credit check is a top-level overview of your financial history. It’s a first look at certain information on your credit report, based on information provided by you. Lenders perform soft credit checks to help them decide whether you’re eligible to apply for credit with them or to check that you qualify for certain offers.
You can also run a soft check on yourself: it’s a useful way to determine how eligible you might be for a range of credit, including car finance, before deciding to apply.
And there’s no limit to the number of soft checks you can have, and they’ll never affect your credit rating.
An employment verification – this is where a potential employer (or sometimes a landlord) wants to confirm you are who you say you are and check that you are financially responsible.
When a credit card company or another credit provider reviews your credit to check if you qualify to receive certain offers.
You may want to check your own credit rating from time to time or before you make an application for a finance product to decide whether to apply.
A soft credit check only reveals that your credit report exists; it doesn’t reveal your actual credit score. Only publicly available information will be visible, such as your electoral roll status, your name, address and a basic overview of your financial history. Credit account history, past applications and financial associations won’t be visible on a soft check. Your credit score itself won’t show up, nor will it be affected in any way by a soft credit check.
What is a hard credit check?
What's the difference between a soft and hard credit check?
Soft search
You can see it on your own credit report
Lenders and organisations can see it on your credit report
It will stay on your credit record for 12 months
It is recorded when you apply for credit
It is recorded when you apply for a utility contract
It is recorded when an identity check is carried out
It is recorded when you check your own own credit report
Hard search
You can see it on your own credit report
Lenders and organisations can see it on your credit report
It will stay on your credit record for 12 months
It is recorded when you apply for credit
It is recorded when you apply for a utility contract
It is recorded when an identity check is carried out
It is recorded when you check your own own credit report
Credit scores further explained
When you apply for finance at Oodle we’ll ask for three years of address history and one year of employment history, plus a few personal details including your annual salary after tax.
Based on publicly available information (electoral roll, current earnings, address) and how much you tell us you’d like to borrow, we can tell you within a few moments whether you pre-qualify for car finance, and what your repayments could look like.
It's worth reiterating here that passing any soft-check pre-approval process doesn’t automatically guarantee that lenders, including Oodle, will go on to offer you finance. Rather, it gives you an indication of whether they are likely to, and an illustration of what your repayment rates might be. Equally, should you choose not to progress with a full finance application after completing a soft-check eligibility checker, that’s completely fine – you won’t have a trail of credit checks negatively affecting any future finance applications.
Check your eligibility with our car finance calculator
If you’re thinking of applying for car finance with Oodle, that’s great! Your first stop is our car finance calculator to get an idea of what your budget could be. Using the finance calculator won’t affect your credit rating in the slightest and you can use it as many times as you like; what it will do is help you decide whether you’re in a healthy financial position to take things forward.
This free tool will give you an illustrative example of what your monthly repayments may look like, depending on how much you’re looking to borrow, helping you to set the best budget for your circumstances.