Before your Care Credit loan can be approved, the issuing authority will pull your credit report from either of the three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax or TransUnion. The results from these credit checks will have a huge impact on your loan application decision and your credit rating.

What Credit Bureau does Care Credit use?

Care Credit uses either of the three major credit bureaus for credit inquiries. The kind of inquiry they request depends on the stage of evaluation. In fact, you won’t have a hard pull done on your credit report until you request an upgrade or submit an application. The initial credit card application goes through a pre-qualification stage and the company will request a soft pull of your credit history. A soft pull credit report is relatively harmless to your credit rating. But when your loan application gets to a serious stage, a hard pull will be done on your credit report. The hard pull will verify all the information on your application form, and will also consider other factors, such as your current debt profile, debt-to-income ratio, your lending history, and so on. When Care Credit pulls your credit reports from the bureaus, they always request two years of credit information. The timeframe is recent enough to gauge how much you make per year, how stable your employment is, your recent payment history, and your overall financial situation.

What credit score should I have to get approved?

Getting your credit card application approved by Credit Card is no easy task, but before you go as far as making the actual request or application, it is advised that you go through the company’s pre-qualification stage. This stage will help you see if you are a good candidate for the Care Credit card without damaging your credit score. Passing the pre-qualification stage means your application has a high chance of being approved. Before applying for a Care Credit card, you must have a credit rating of at least 620. There are reports of the company approving requests with a credit score of 600, but those are the exceptions rather than the rule. If your credit score is already lower than 620, you can’t take the risk and have your credit rating further decreased. This is why we had earlier advised that you go through the pre-qualification stage first.

Does applying for care credit hurt your credit report?

Yes, a hard pull will always affect your credit rating. But that is not a serious issue, because the effect will disappear after a year. However, having your credit application rejected is something you should be worried about. A rejection will always affect your credit rating, and you should be careful with the number of loan applications you do per year. This is because having too many hard pulls on your credit report will inadvertently ruin your credit rating. Your credit rating will also be reduced if you have bad payment behavior. Especially when you carry payment dues for one month into the following month. This action is risky, as banks submit monthly reports to these credit bureaus, and it will be noted that you did not pay in the last month. Credit Care does employ the services of the three credit bureaus. They mostly use TransUnion, Equifax and Experian for their hard and soft pulls. They will also report your account activities to these credit bureaus for documentation and future reference. If you want to apply for a Care Credit card, your chances of getting an approval would be increased if you have a credit rating of 620 or above. Anything lower will most definitely lead to a rejection.

  1. Which credit bureau does care credit use? Ans: Care Credit pulls its credit inquiry reports from three major credit bureaus: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.
  2. How is a soft pull different from a hard pull? Ans: A soft pull is a harmless check done on your credit history. This sort of inquiry neither adds nor reduces points from your credit score. However, a hard pull is an in-depth inquiry into your credit report. Having a hard pull done on your credit report affects your credit rating.
  3. Does care credit do a soft pull or a hard pull? Ans: Care Credit does both at different stages of the application evaluation process. The soft pull comes during the pre-qualification stage, while the hard pull is done after the loan application has been submitted.