Will getting several car loan quotes online hurt my credit?
Probably not, since many lenders conduct a soft credit pull after you fill out a prequalification form, which doesn’t affect your score.
But submitting a full car loan application will cause the lender to conduct a hard credit check that temporarily lowers your score. However, many credit scoring models consider multiple inquiries for the same type of loan within a short period of time as a single inquiry. This means that rate shopping likely won’t hurt your credit score any more than applying for a single loan.