How Long Do Car Inquiries Stay on Your Credit Report?

A car loan inquiry stays on your credit report for two years from the date the lender pulled your credit, but its effect on your score is much shorter and much smaller than that timeline suggests. FICO stops counting the inquiry after 12 months, and a single hard pull usually drops your score by about five points or less.¹ If you shop several lenders in a short window, scoring models group those pulls together and treat them as one.

Two Years on the Report, One Year in the Score

Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion all keep hard inquiries on your file for 24 months from the date of the pull. After that, the entry drops off automatically.²

The scoring window is shorter. FICO factors a hard inquiry into your score only for the first 12 months after the pull, even though the inquiry itself stays visible for the full two years. VantageScore can consider hard inquiries for the full 24 months they appear on your report, though the effect generally fades after the first few months.³

So if a lender uses FICO, a car inquiry stops hurting your score a year before it disappears from your report.

How Much a Car Inquiry Actually Drops Your Score

A single hard inquiry typically lowers a FICO score by about five points or less. If your credit is already strong, the drop can be even smaller, and the effect diminishes over the first few months before dropping off entirely at the 12-month mark.¹

Inquiries make up a relatively small portion of your overall score. One auto loan inquiry is unlikely to change a lending decision. The bigger risk is stacking several inquiries outside the rate-shopping windows described below.

Rate-Shopping Windows for Auto Loans

When you apply for auto loans at several lenders within a short period, scoring models recognize that you’re comparing offers on one car rather than opening multiple new lines of credit. They bundle those inquiries and count them as a single event.⁴

The window length depends on the model:

Newer FICO versions group all auto loan inquiries within a 45-day period as one.⁴
Older FICO versions shrink that window to 14 days.⁴
VantageScore groups auto loan inquiries within a 14-day period as one.⁵

You won’t know which FICO version your lender uses, so the safe move is to finish your rate-shopping inside 14 days. That way the inquiries are grouped under every model.⁵ Each pull still appears as a separate line on your report. The grouping only affects how they’re counted in the score.

When a Dealer Sends Your Application to Several Lenders

Dealership finance departments often submit your application to several lenders at once to find competitive offers, and each submission can generate its own hard inquiry.⁴ This is standard practice, and as long as the pulls fall inside the rate-shopping window, they’ll count as one for scoring purposes. If you want more control, ask the finance department upfront which lenders they plan to submit to, or get pre-approved through your own bank or credit union before you visit the lot.

Soft Pulls vs. Hard Pulls When Car Shopping

Not every credit check during car shopping counts as a hard inquiry. A soft pull happens during preliminary reviews like pre-qualification, doesn’t affect your score, and isn’t visible to other lenders. A hard pull happens when you formally apply for credit, and that’s the one that can lower your score.²

Many lenders and online auto financing tools now offer pre-qualification with only a soft pull, letting you see estimated rates before committing.⁶ The hard pull typically doesn’t happen until you move forward with a formal application or the dealer submits your information for final approval. Both soft and hard inquiries can appear on your report for up to two years, but only hard inquiries affect your score.²

Worth knowing: a dealer needs a legitimate credit-related reason to pull your report, generally a credit transaction you’ve started. Test-driving a car does not qualify, and the FTC has said as much.⁷ A dealer who pulls your credit without authorization violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act.⁸

Removing an Inquiry You Didn’t Authorize

Legitimate hard inquiries have to run their two-year course. But if an inquiry on your report is unauthorized or inaccurate, you can dispute it. Start by identifying the lender’s name and the date the inquiry was recorded, then file a dispute with each bureau showing the entry, online, by phone, or by mail.⁹

The bureau must investigate within 30 days. If you send additional information during that window, the bureau can take up to 15 extra days, for a total of 45. The extension doesn’t apply if the bureau finds the information is inaccurate or can’t be verified during the initial period.¹⁰ If the bureau cannot verify that the lender had authorization to pull your credit, the inquiry must be deleted.¹¹ After the investigation, you can ask the bureau for a description of how it verified the inquiry, including the name, address, and phone number of the lender it contacted; the bureau has 15 days to provide it.

Keep copies of every letter and every confirmation number. If the inquiry traces back to identity theft, a police report and an Identity Theft Affidavit strengthen the dispute and can speed removal.

1
Experian. How Many Points Does an Inquiry Drop Your Credit Score
2
Equifax. Hard Inquiry vs Soft Inquiry: Whats the Difference
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Experian. How Many Hard Inquiries Is Too Many
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Experian. Multiple Inquiries When Shopping for a Car Loan
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TransUnion. How Rate Shopping Can Impact Your Credit Score
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Experian. Prequalified vs Preapproved: Whats the Difference
7
Federal Trade Commission. FTC Staff Advises Automobile Dealers May Not Obtain Credit Reports on Consumers Out for a Test Drive
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681b – Permissible Purposes of Consumer Reports
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Do I Dispute an Error on My Credit Report
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681i – Procedure in Case of Disputed Accuracy
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. How Long Does It Take to Repair an Error on a Credit Report