when you apply for a loan line of credit or credit card the lender will typically request a copy of your credit report from one or more of the three major credit bureaus equifax experian and transunion 
the credit bureaus obtain their information from your current and previous creditors because not every creditor reports to all three bureaus and some don t report to any of them you credit reports can vary from one bureau to another in the case of large loans such as home mortgages the lender may request all three reports before it makes its decision in order to get as complete a picture of you as possible these requests are known as hard inquiries any type of hard credit inquiry will be noted on your credit report causing a small credit score decrease hard inquiries remain on your credit report for two years although they have no effect on your credit score after one year 2if you have many hard inquiries in a short time period some lenders may take that as a red flag that you are in desperate need of money you may also see a substantial drop in your credit score however lenders and credit scoring models make allowances in some situations for example most fico credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto mortgage or student loan lenders within a short period of time typically these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on your credit scores fico says 2fico has multiple scoring models and that short period of time can vary from one to another in the latest models it is 45 days 2as the consumer financial protection bureau explains the impact on your credit is the same no matter how many lenders you consult as long as the last credit check is within 45 days of the first credit check even if a lender needs to check your credit after the 45 day window is over shopping around is usually still worth it the impact of an additional inquiry is small while shopping around for the best deal can save you a lot of money in the long run 3