 TITLE: Does a Declined Loan Appear on Your Credit Report? CONTENT: Credit Denials Do Not Show Up in Your Credit Report\n---------------------------------------------------\nIn addition to personal information such as any names you've used with lenders, current and former addresses, and your date of birth, consumer credit reports contain a wealth of information about your relationships with lenders. This includes account balances, credit limits, loan amounts, payment histories as well as two types of inquiries—hard and soft.\nSoft inquiries show up when, for example, you view your own credit report or a lender with whom you already do business checks your credit report as part of an account review. You may also see a soft inquiry appear as a result of a lender sending you a preapproved offer for a loan or credit card. Soft inquiries do not have any impact on your credit scores.\nHard inquiries, on the other hand, are related to applications you have made for credit or services. They may have some impact on your credit, although it is temporary and usually minimal.\nBoth hard and soft inquiries are automatically removed from credit reports after two years.\nCredit reporting agencies such as Experian are not notified about whether your application for credit is approved or denied, so credit reports do not maintain a record of credit denials. Nor do they include a record of credit approvals, for that matter. But those who review your credit report can see who else has done the same for lending purposes. Lenders and credit scoring models may view frequent inquiries as increasing a borrower's credit risk, whether or not the inquiries result in a new account on a report. END