If you are looking for payday loans online or fast cash loans to help you with emergency expenses and costs, or any other unexpected expenses, requesting a loan with Kallyss will not leave a credit footprint on your account, meaning your future credit score will not be affected by your application for a loan. When it comes to taking out a loan, many lenders will carry out a credit check in order to assess your ability to pay back the loan at the agreed time, which will leave a ‘footprint’ on your credit record.
This guide will give you an overview as to what a credit footprint actually is, what it means for you and your prospects of getting a loan and the different types of credit footprints that can be left on your file.
What Is a Credit Footprint and How Does It Work?
Whenever a lender or a loan provider checks your credit file to see if you are eligible for a loan they leave a ‘credit footprint’ on your report. This is the case whether you apply for a mortgage, a title loan or a short term unsecured loan option like a payday loan. This footprint is a record which indicates to both you and to others that look at the file that they have done so and can provide easy confirmation that a credit check has taken place.
Credit checks only happen through a handful of credit reference agencies such as TransUnion, Equifax and Experian; these agencies give the lenders personal information about you such as:
- Your current address
- Any outstanding debt that you have
- Your current account overdraft
- If you are bankrupt or not
- Any accounts that you have closed in the past 6 years
- Any loans, credit card or mortgage accounts that you currently have open.
- Any missed repayments from loans and how many times you missed the payment
- Any previous application that you have made for a loan and the other credit footprints that are on your file.
This information allows the lender to make an assessment as to whether they should provide you with a loan and how much interest they should charge you. Those with a worse credit score may be asked to pay a higher interest rate on their loan so that the lender can be guaranteed that the money will come back to them. When a lender asks for a credit check and they check your file, they leave something called a ‘credit footprint,’ to show that they have checked your credit file. No matter what loan you apply for, whether it is a payday loan in Texas, fast cash advance loan in Tennessee or an online payday loan in Ohio or anything else, lenders will need to carry out some checks to try and make sure you can afford the loan and its repayments.
Why Perform a Credit Check?
When you apply with a lender to borrow money, they will need to determine how creditworthy you are. When performing a credit check they will be able to see all of your financial circumstances and all your personal information before you borrow money online or otherwise.
Making sure you are aware of and where possible perform positive actions’ for your credit score such as being prompt with passed repayments of loans and not applying for many loans at one time will help you when it comes to borrowing money. The better your credit behavior, the more credit-worthy you will be when it comes to applying or any loan, with lenders more likely to accept you and give you a lower interest rate for your loan.
How Long Do Credit Footprints Last?
Credit footprints can stay on your credit file for different periods of time depending on the type of application you have submitted. On average, credit footprints last around a year on your file if you have made a credit or loan application; two years when the search is made by a debt collector and six years if it is for fully funded credit searches. Remember, that the point of a credit file and a credit footprint is to help inform lenders whether or not you are a good ‘lending prospect.’ The better your credit score, the more likely you are to be able to borrow money online, be it a $600 loan, a $1,000 loan online or any other form of credit.
Types of Credit Footprints
It is important to note that there are 2 different types of credit footprints and credit searches and they make a big difference to your credit score and history. There are ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ credit searches which leave hard or soft credit footprints on your credit file.
What Is a Hard Credit Search?
A hard credit search is also known as a ‘true’ credit check, which is made on your credit file, this will most likely stay on your record for up to 12 months after the search has been performed by a lender or credit provider in the USA. This type of search happens in most high-street banks and with more mainstream loans such as for credit cards, long-term loans, secured loans online and mortgages.
Hard credit searches do not necessarily tell anyone viewing your credit file what you applied for and why you applied or got rejected for the loan or finance arrangement in question.
However, hard credit searches can be damaging in some circumstances. For example, if you apply for numerous forms of credit or for multiple loans in a short period of time, there may be multiple hard credit searches on your credit record. Although you may be accepted for all of the lines of credit and all loans you have applied for, lenders may not know this. Therefore, when a lender sees an applicant with multiple hard credit searches in a short period of time, they may assume that you were rejected for the loan or credit applied for. This may then lead to you being rejected for the loan or credit as the lender may assume that you have repeatedly applied for credit after getting rejected each time, even if this is not actually the case.
What Is a Soft Credit Search?
Soft credit searches involve the lender looking at your credit file and assessing your eligibility but not actually leaving a credit footprint on your account. A soft credit search will not impact your long term credit record and unlike a hard credit check, it is more of a quick credit search. These are more common with short term loans and unsecured loan options like installment loans, bad credit loans and small loans like payday loans or $100 loans.
Lenders want to make sure that you are free from any missed repayments in your financial history and this is what a soft credit search can do without impacting your credit score.
Should I Be Worried About Having Credit Search Footprints?
Though you may feel apprehensive over your credit file being checked and others being able to view when these checks took place, generally speaking, there isn’t anything wrong with having digital credit search footprints on your report. Everyone will need to apply for loans in their lifetime and, as such, it would be very difficult to go through your entire financial life without having your report checked with both soft and hard credit search footprints. Therefore, having a few credit search footprints on your report is expected.
Nonetheless, you should be careful not to have numerous search footprints on your file. This can sound alarm bells for lenders as it could, for example, suggest that you are in financial difficulty and are needing to take out a lot of loans to cover you. This will, in turn, imply to future lenders that you are in desperate need of cash and therefore will struggle to repay any loans they may lend you. This may lead lenders to deny your loan application.
As soft credit search footprints do not normally stay on your file for more than two years, it would always be best to try and be patient and not apply for too much more within this time. You should always at least try to wait for a response from each company you apply for a loan from until you decide to move on to the next.
This is the best way to improve your credit score and keep your credit report at the optimum level it can be – something which will be incredibly beneficial to you throughout your future financial lifetime.
