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I have a very good credit score (just shy of excellent) and I wanted to purchase a fairly pricey item on Amazon. They have a couple of decent credit card offers, one with Chase that gives you $70 Amazon credit on approval and their store card that gives you $40. I applied for the Chase, and found out I wasn't immediately approved. So, I took the chance and applied for the store card and got instantly approved. Later that day, I got approved from Chase too.

Anyway, few weeks later I check my annual free credit report (one of them) and interestingly I have only a "hard" inquiry from chase registered. Which makes me wonder, is the other not a hard inquiry or is it delayed and will show up later? I've read online that being pre-approved for credit cards only leads to a soft inquiry and so won't effect the score. Was I "pre-approved" when I was instantly approved for the store card?

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It is not delayed and if it didn't show yet - will not show on that agency's credit report.

However, you may find it on another agency's report. There are three major agencies, and creditors don't always check all of them (each inquiry costs them money).

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  • Thanks for the answer. I will soon check my other credit reports and verify if you are right. Mar 19, 2015 at 17:37
  • Yes, you are correct. I verified from other credit agencies and noticed that the Amazon store card hit only one of them with a hard request, the other hit two. Mar 20, 2015 at 18:37
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You'll see a hard inquiry for both, but not necessarily on all three agencies (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax). I have both the Amazon Chase and Amazon Store Card. Amazon Chase, is obviously through Chase bank. Amazon Store Card is through GE Money.

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Businesses you are already established with may do a soft pull to pre-qualify you for an offer. They store the information and if you accept, may instantly setup and account. You may also see language to the effect that they may do an inquiry (hard pull) - I guess if their data is old. When you went outside of Amazon to Chase, they did a hard pull on their side which is what you saw.

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  • This is definitely true, but turns out it wasn't for my case. As pointed out by @littleadv, they hit only 1 agency. Mar 20, 2015 at 18:39
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Yes, they do.

Generally though you'll only see it on one or two reports.

With regards to the impact on your credit score. Hard inquiries only stay on your credit for 2 years, after that they fall off. For most credit scores (specifically FICO) they only have an impact for 1 year after their date. If you have a few in the same 30 day period FICO will lump these into 1 pull to allow you to shop around for credit/loans. They also have a low to medium impact on your score.

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