Regional Finance executes a hard credit check during the final stages of the formal loan application process when evaluating your creditworthiness for underwriting approval. Initial pre-qualification tools or preliminary offers usually involve a soft credit inquiry, which reviews your credit data without affecting your credit scoring history. However, once you submit a definitive, signed loan application to proceed with funding, a hard inquiry is logged with major credit reporting bureaus, causing a temporary, minor dip in your overall credit score as part of standard financial industry protocol.