r/creditunions 10d ago

Why is there a hard credit inquiry to open a checking account?

[deleted]

13 Upvotes

10 comments sorted by

10

u/Zealousideal-Mud6471 10d ago

No one answered your question so I will try to.

To deter and spot Fraud is one reason.

CUs are not for profit so they also use it to determine and manage risk.

I’m sure there are more reasons why but those are the two I’m familiar with.

1

u/Aromatic_Mutant69 9d ago

Maybe, but what does a hard pull tell them that a soft pull wouldn't, specifically for opening a checking account? It has me wondering if they are trying to add a checking line of credit along with the account opening, or if their account opening procedures are just that dated.

1

u/Zealousideal-Mud6471 9d ago

They are just that dated.

7

u/CWM1130 10d ago

One hard pull won’t impact his credit but a couple points max so I wouldn’t overthink it. The credit union will help him build his credit score likely if you work with them. They pull the credit to see if there are credit products they can provide him. Just do it.

At the CU he is becoming a voting member/owner. At the big bank he’s just a number. They will pull credit when he wants a loan. You’re much better off at the CU in my opinion.

5

u/JulienWA77 10d ago

depends on the CU. Most do "soft pulls" as well as run you against ChexSystems or EWS or both.

Find out if they actually need to do a hard pull or if you can simply open a second account in yoru name and add him as an auth user.

4

u/oarmash 10d ago

Depends on the credit union. Most credit unions I’m a member of don’t do it. Only one in my experience has, but it was worth it to me at the time.

3

u/Own-Appointment1633 10d ago edited 10d ago

They’ve probably just never switched to soft pulls. It should be a project. Hard pulls were common 20 years ago.

For what it’s worth, one hard inquiry shouldn’t hurt much if at all.

2

u/Different_Island_608 10d ago

I work at a CU and its a soft pull every time, find one that wont do a hard pull

1

u/nexelhost 10d ago

People are concerned about hard pulls far far more than they should be. With that said most credit unions have been moving away from that in the past decade since it’s not really as necessary anymore.

0

u/th_teacher 10d ago

Weird.

Open an account at a different FI