A hard inquiry happens when a company (such as an auto loan provider or credit card company) requests a copy of your consumer report from one of the three credit bureaus in order to respond to your credit or loan application. All inquiries, both hard and soft, will stay on your credit report for two years from the date of the inquiry, but hard inquiries will only affect your score for the first year. Föehl says, "While hard inquiries generally impact your credit score and are included in a copy of your consumer report provided to others, soft inquiries do not impact your credit score and are not included."