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Two Types of Soft Pulls, Two Different Jobs
Soft pull credit checks fall into two categories: prescreen and prequalification. The terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. First, a prescreen credit check is accessed by the credit bureau agency, not the auto dealer or business. Additionally, a prescreen happens behind the scenes without the consumer initiating it, while prequalification is consumer-initiated at a point of contact.
Understanding the distinction matters for two reasons. First, it determines when and how you can legally run a soft pull under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Second, it changes which tool you use depending on where the buyer is in the process.
What Is Prequalification?
Prequalification is a consumer-initiated soft pull. The buyer comes to you through your website, in-person, or over the phone and requests to know whether they qualify before submitting a full credit application. They provide written consent, and you run a full soft pull credit report in real time.
The result is a complete credit profile and FICO score, delivered instantly, with no impact to the consumer’s credit score. Neither party is obligated to proceed before a contract is signed.
Key features of prequalification:
- Consumer-initiated, with written consent at point of contact
- Full credit file and FICO score returned in real time
- No Risk-Based Pricing Notice required
- Minimum consumer age: 18
- No impact on credit score, no hard inquiry created
How dealerships use prequalification:
Website lead forms
Embed a “Get Pre-Qualified” form on your vehicle detail pages or homepage. Shoppers check their score before they visit. and arrive knowing what they can afford.
Showroom qualification
The moment a customer engages, run a soft pull before you pull a key or pencil a payment. Know their credit tier and build a deal on the right vehicle before you invest floor time.
Hesitant buyers
A customer who will not give a Social Security Number will usually give a name and address. Prequalification starts the conversation without asking for more than they are comfortable sharing.
Digital retailing
Build prequalification into your online deal process so remote buyers can engage with real payment options based on their actual credit profile.
What Is Prescreening?
Prescreening is a dealer-initiated soft pull process. Dealers provide the criteria, such as minimum credit score, debt-to-income thresholds, or past delinquency history, to a credit reporting agency. The agency filters its database and returns a list of consumers who match those criteria. You never see individual credit files during that filtering process; you only receive the resulting list of names that qualified.
The consumer is not involved in initiating the prescreen and businesses must follow strict guidelines of what is permissible under the FCRA.
FCRA requirements for prescreening:
- You must make a “firm offer of credit” to everyone on the list, meaning a bona fide offer with specific terms (credit amount, term length, APR)
- The offer must include an opt-out mechanism so consumers can remove themselves from future prescreen lists
- The minimum age for a prescreened consumer is 21
How dealerships use prescreening:
Service drive reactivation
Run a prescreen against your existing service customer database to identify who is credit-qualified and equity-positive. Then reach out with a targeted upgrade offer before they ever shop elsewhere.
Conquest campaigns
Prescreen a list of prospects in your market before investing in mailers, email, or phone outreach. Only spend on contacts who qualify.
Lender program matching
When a lender launches a new rate program or incentive, prescreen your database to find customers who fit the criteria and get in front of them first.
Lease maturity outreach
Identify which upcoming lease maturities in your base have the credit profile to roll into a new deal smoothly.
Prescreen vs Prequalify: Side by Side
| Who initiates it | Dealer / business | Consumer | |
|---|---|---|---|
Consumer consent required | No | Yes | |
Consumer knows it happened | Not necessarily | yes | |
What’s returned | List of qualifying consumers | Full credit file + FICO score | |
Best used for | Outbound marketing, service drive reactivation, conquest | Inbound leads, showroom, website, digital retailing | |
FCRA requirement | Firm offer of credit + opt-out | Permissible purpose (prequalification) | |
Minimum consumer age | 21 | 18 | |
Risk-Based Pricing Notice | Required | Not required | |
Credit score impact | None | None | |
Hard inquiry created | No | No |
Which One Should Your Dealership Use?
Use prescreen when you are going out to find buyers. If you have a list — your service drive, a conquest file, a lease maturity report — prescreen it before you spend a dollar on outreach. You will know who qualifies before you make a single call or send a single mailer. Informativ does not offer prescreens.
Use prequalification when buyers are coming to you. Any time a shopper is engaging with your store — on your website, walking your lot, calling your BDC — prequalification turns that contact into a real conversation about real numbers. It replaces the pencil with data.
Prescreen vs Prequalify: Side by Side
| PRESCREEN |
|---|
Who initiates it Dealer / business |
Consumer consent required No |
Consumer knows it happened Not necessarily |
What’s returned List of qualifying consumers |
Best used for Outbound marketing Service drive reactivation Conquest |
FCRA requirement Firm offer of credit + opt-out |
Minimum consumer age 21 |
Risk-Based Pricing Notice Required |
Credit score impact None |
Hard inquiry created No |
| PREQUALIFY |
|---|
Who initiates it Consumer |
Consumer consent required Yes |
Consumer knows it happened Yes |
What’s returned Full credit file + FICO score |
Best used for Inbound leads Showroom Website Digital retailing |
FCRA requirement Permissible purpose (prequalification) |
Minimum consumer age 18 |
Risk-Based Pricing Notice Not Required |
Credit score impact None |
Hard inquiry created No |
Which One Should Your Dealership Use?
Use prescreen when you are going out to find buyers. If you have a list — your service drive, a conquest file, a lease maturity report — prescreen it before you spend a dollar on outreach. You will know who qualifies before you make a single call or send a single mailer. Informativ does not offer prescreens.
Use prequalification when buyers are coming to you. Any time a shopper is engaging with your store — on your website, walking your lot, calling your BDC — prequalification turns that contact into a real conversation about real numbers. It replaces the pencil with data.
Using Soft Pulls the Right Way: FCRA and Permissible Purpose
Both prescreen and prequalification are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Using either tool outside of FCRA-defined permissible purposes creates compliance exposure for your dealership.
For prescreen, the FCRA requires that every consumer on a prescreened list receives a firm offer of credit with specific terms. You cannot prescreen a list and then use it for general marketing without making a qualifying offer. Consumers must also be given the ability to opt out of future prescreen offers at any time.
For prequalification, the consumer must initiate the inquiry and provide consent. You cannot run a prequalification on a consumer without their knowledge or written authorization.
Informativ’s soft pull credit solutions, including Customer Insights, are built with permissible-purpose compliance in mind. Informativ ensures your soft pull program stays within FCRA guidelines — and documents the process for your compliance records.
Combined with Informativ’s broader auto dealer compliance platform that includes FTC Safeguards Rule, OFAC, Red Flags, MLA, adverse action – and the guardrails to enforce physical and administrative compliance throughout the sales process, Informativ’s credit solutions offer dealerships control over their credit usage and spend. Â
Frequently Asked Questions:
Yes, under FCRA rules — but only if you make a firm offer of credit to everyone on the resulting list and include a proper opt-out mechanism. Prescreening without following FCRA requirements creates compliance risk.
It requires written consent from the consumer at the point of contact. In digital retailing contexts, an electronic consent checkbox typically satisfies this requirement.
Yes. Running a prescreen against your existing service drive or customer file is one of the most effective uses of the tool. You identify upgrade-ready, credit-qualified customers before reaching out — with no hard pull and no credit score impact to your customers.
Prequalification is not a commitment from either party. It gives you a real-time snapshot of the buyer’s credit profile at the moment of the pull. A final hard pull credit report at the time of lender submission reflects the buyer’s current file. Most dealers run the soft pull to qualify and structure the deal, then run the hard pull to close.
For prescreen, you receive a list of consumers who meet your criteria — not individual full credit files. For prequalification, you receive a full soft pull credit report including FICO score, tradelines, account balances, and credit profile for the specific consumer.
Informativ offers prequalifications through soft pull credit reports from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Informativ’s Customer Insights solution is powered by soft pull credit reports and provides an additional layer of identity verification and lead source tracking for marketing purposes. Informativ doesn’t offer prescreens.
Ready to Qualify Smarter at Every Stage & Control Credit Usage?
Informativ offers soft pull prequalification as a standalone solution and as part of our end-to-end platform that enables dealers to control their credit usage and costs.