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The words “hard pull” and “soft pull” often pop up when people discuss about credit report, credit history, or credit inquiries. Actually, they are not official terms used by credit experts. Both “Hard pull” and “soft pull” are referred to credit check performed by a third party who wants to check your credit history.

“Hard pull” usually refers to a credit inquiry that is initiated by you, and it does affect your credit score in a short time period. This usually happens when you want to apply for a credit. For example, when you apply for a credit card or a loan or a wireless service, the credit lenders might want to check your credit history based on which they will determine whether or not to approve your requests. Hard pulls are on your credit report and visible to other creditors.

“Soft pull” usually happens when creditors want to send you pre-approved credit applications, or when they want to verify the accuracy of the information you provide. Of course, when you check your own credit history, the inquiries are “soft”. Soft pulls are actually on your credit report but they are only visible by you. So they won’t affect your credit score.

Too many hard pulls on one’s credit report can be harmful, and can result in higher loan or insurance rates. It will be a reason for your creditors to refuse your credit request.

My rule is “I must have at least $100 incentive for each hard pull.”

The following is a list of banks or other kind of credit lenders that DO pull hard credit inquiries.

Ameriprise Insurance (division of American Express) – for car insurance quote

AmTrust for a CD account and Money Market Account

AT&T Wireless

Bank of America for a checking account

Bank of America for a CD account opened online

Bank of America for savings account

Bank of New York for a checking account and a savings account

Brookline Bank for a checking account

Brown & Co. for every account

Charles Schwab Bank for opening new checking and investor account

Charter One Bank for a checking account

Chase Manhattan Bank for a checking account

Cingular Wireless

Citibank for opening a 6-month CD

Citibank for a checking and savings account

Citibank pulls hard inquiry for opening e-Savings account

Comcast cable TV and HIS

Countrywide (stopped pulling sometime in 2007)

Direct TV

Dish Network

Dollar RENT A CAR

Everbank for a Money Market Account, as well as for a checking one

Ebank for a checking account

GMAC Bank for their MM savings account

ING Direct – When you open Electric Orange checking account. No hard pull for opening Orange Savings account.

Johnson & Johnson by Yale & Associates on Experian- for employment purpose

Marquette National Bank — checking, savings, CD and safe deposit box

NASA Federal Credit Union – when applying for membership

National1St Credit Union – When opening an account/CD

Pentagon Federal Credit Union for membership and a new account

Presidential Bank for a checking account

Principal Bank for a checking account, also pulls for money market account

Scottrade for a new account

Sprint for a new line

State Farm Auto Insurance for getting an auto insurance quote

Suntrust for opening of a checking account

T-Mobile for cell phone service

Time Warner Cable for new service

TD Waterhouse/Ameritrade hard pull on an existing customer to open IRA

UFBDirect.com for a High Yield Money Market Saving account

US Bank (online / phone only. soft pull when opening in branch) for a checking/saving account

Verizon for landline, DSL, or VoIP. Also for new cellphone account

Wachovia for opening a checking account

Wells Fargo—whatever you do with them—a hard pull

Banks that DO NOT pull hard credit inquiries.

Chase Bank

Countrywide Bank FSB

FNBO Direct

LaSalle Bank

PNC Bank for opening a free checking account

Washington Mutual

U.S. Bank (in-branch visits only)

CapitalOne high yield Market Money account

By the end of this year, consumers in all 50 states can have the right to freeze their own credit files in all 3 credit bureaus. A security freeze gives consumers the choice to “freeze” or lock access to their credit file against anyone who may be trying to open up a new account or to get new credit under their name. In this way, an identity thief cannot open a new account. However, if you want to apply for a credit, you have to unlock your credit accounts by using a special PIN number.

Each year, there are millions of Americans suffer from the identity theft. Obviously, consumers’ personal and financial data has become the gold of 21st century. That’s why we witness so many ID thefts in the modern information society. (In set shows the major ID leaks this year.) Freezing your credit files is the first step which you can do to against the identity theft. The cost is $10 for each credit bureau for a year. Then, if you want to apply for a mortgage, car loan, or credit card, you have to pay another $10 to unlock your credit file. Is the credit freezing worth the money? I leave this to you to make the judgments. Actually, there are many credit monitoring services available. You can use those services to monitor your credit files at 3 credit bureaus at any time. (See the post here.)

Video about Credit Freezing

I think this is really an interesting idea to rent your credit score to those who in need of good credit score.

When I read the articles about renting credit score, I think I should write something about it for my readers. However, I am not encouraging you guys to rent your credit score. It seems unethical for me and you should also consider the risk of losing your personal information to others.

These days, having a good credit score means everything. It will make a lot of things easier for you if your credit history is clean, including renting out an apartment. The credit score is extremely important for those who want to buy a house. But in fact, lots of people might have insufficient credit score when they file an application. How could they do? There is a fast-growing business on the Internet: companies that claim to boost credit scores by transplanting the credit DNA of people with excellent payment histories into the credit files of people with sub-par histories. Most companies claim that they can increase the credit score by about 20 to 250 points, or more, by adding those with low credit score as authorized users onto the credit card accounts of people with excellent FICO scores.

In this way, the positive payment information of those with excellent credit score will flow into those with low credit score. Actually, our parents are always adding their sons or daughters as authorized users into their accounts. Obviously, it’s legal to add someone as your authorized users. And that’s why this kind of business is boosting on the Internet. Someone can rent their credit score for about $1,500 to $2,000 for 180 days or more. Some companies claim that they can increase their clients’ credit score by 150 to 250 points for just months with a price of $750! For those who want to boost their credit scores, they don’t have physical credit cards. So they can’t use the credit account. However, they may see the new account appear on their credit report which is the cause of the increase of credit score.

How much can you get paid for renting your credit scores? The amount you can get varies. It depends on the age of the credit card and the credit limit. There used to be a website named rentyourcreditcards.com is no longer. However, it’s no longer available now, in part I think due to the questionnaire from credit card companies and credit report agencies.

Anyway, I think this is an interesting idea to rent your credit score to others and that why some companies can make money from it. This post is just an introduction, and I’m not encouraging you to do this business. Again, it doesn’t seem a good idea to me. But I think you can learn something from it.

I can expect that most of us may or may not know our credit scores. Someone may even haven’t checked his or her scredit report! I think check your credit report every month or every several months is a must. You should be always careful about your identity fraud. With the development of advanced technology, the indentity fraud seems as a major concern for us. based on my own experience, I list some services that you can use.

1. You have the right to check your credit report once every year from annualcreditreport.com. You can try one credit bureau each time. You don’t have to pull credit report from 3 credit bureaus at the same time. You can check another bureau later. For example, I requested to see my credit report from TransUnion in Feb. Then I can request to see my credit report in Experian in June. Then in November, I can see the credit report from Equifax. Our law gives us the right to check our credit report once every year for free. The credit report you pulled from annualcreditreport.com can be viewed online for one month. They don’t report credit score. (Don’t confuse with freecredtireort.com! They are not free!)

2. Every time when you get rejected for an application for a credit card or checking/saving account, you have to right to request a credit report from the credit bureau. Which credit bureau you can request depends on which credit bureau they pull when you file the application. It’s free. Again they don’t provide credit score.

3. The private credit service from each credit bureau. For example, TransUnion provides the service named truecredit. Right now they offer unlimited credit score and credit report from transunion for only $9.95/mon. The first month is free. Experian and Equifax also provide similar service. IF you’d like, they also provide 3-in-1 credit report and credit score. As long as you pay them money, you can get all 3 credit reports and credit scores from them.

4. MyFico.com offers the true credit score for you. The above mentioned services give you FAKO credit score. Altough they use similar scoring system as MyFico, MyFico is the only place you can get your true credit score. Again MyFico will also provide credit report for you. But you have to pay it.

5 . National City Identity Protect. I use this service since this July. I can pull my credit report from 3 bureaus daily and it also provide the credit score from Transunion. The price is $8.95/mon. The first month is $1.

6. CreditSecure from American Express. This service provides 3-in-1 credit report. You can get FAKO from 3 credit bureaus. The price is $11.99/mon. If you call then up, you will get $99.95 per year. The system is much more beautiful than Truecredit. You need have an American Express card to sign in. The first month is free.

7. Citi Identity Monitor. I haven’ t used this service before. You can get 3-in-1 credit report and creedit score for just $12.95/mon. The first month is free. (766318 to enroll yourself)

8. Chase Identity Protection. It seems it’s similar service like Citi.

9. Costco Identity Guard. They provide 3-in-1 credit report and credit score. The drawback compared to other service is you can only update your credit report and credit score monthly. The price for Executive Members is $7.49/mon. And $9.49/mon for Gold Star & Business Members.

10. Walmart TrueCredit Service. I believe this service is actually provided by TrueCredit. But you pay through Walmart. They increase the rate recently.

11. Privacy Guard. You can try their service for just $1 for the first 2 months. And then you have to pay $129.99 per year. You can get 3-in-1 credit report and credit score.

12. Privacy Matters. Believe me, don’t use their service. The price for the first 7 days is $1 and then you have to pay $29.95/mon. You have better choices.

I believe you can find more credit services to get yourself know your credit score and credit report. The above mentione are the most popular srevices we use today. And we are not willing to provide our personal information to those private owned services. Get started to see your credit report and score! You will have better chance to get a credit card or checking/saving account.

The credit card users have a right to review their credit reports on quarterly, semi-annually or annually basis. They can send request for their credit report to credit bureau. The better credit scores extracted from these reports help debt relief for borrowers. It’s a best source for determining credit worthiness of the borrower hence helps in deciding debt consolidation rates for them. Debt financing or credit consolidation help business people in managing their business finance requirements more efficiently and more effectively.