Can it be a soft pull or other way that won’t affect one’s credit score?
Doing a hard credit pull does negatively impact your score however the impact is small.
When you get a lease, your credit report will show that you have an account with the finance company, the total amount to be paid and your monthly payment. Initially your credit score may drop because you now have less ability to take on new debt, but given a good payment history, it should help your credit score.
BTW, there isn’t one credit score, There are many different credit score algorithms focused on an individuals predictive ability to repay their auto loan.
yes. It has to be a full pull of your credit.
I ALWAYS assume giving my social security number will result in a hard pull.
Why?
Because companies lie. They tell us it is a soft pull, then hard pull it.
There is a HUGE discussion about this here.
Of course it is a hard pull. What i dont understand what do they get with a soft pull that they can use for negotiations with you.
Buying/leasing a vehicle is always a hard pull. Always make sure you have an idea what your credit score is you can check by credit karma or some credit cards offer fico score I noticed its not 100% accurate however you should have any idea what your score range is.
I also noticed every time I got my credit pulled I got 2 inquiries. One from the dealer and one from the bank the dealer is working with. The more inquiries you have the less your score is so be careful.
if you’re paying cash then they don’t need to pull your credit 
Yes they do my dad and a friend of mine bought a brand new car and paid full cash they still required a credit check.
if I was paying cash and the dealer wanted to pull credit, I would tell them to pound sand and walk out.
They were only pulling credit to try to sell them on financing the purchase.
Why would they pull a credit if they already went in prepared to be full cash for the car?
Exactly why they do not want to finance the car instead pay it in full.
I think they want to verify where they money is coming from that your paying all in cash.
A credit report won’t verify funds. It just lists your debt, it doesn’t show your bank account balances. (they’d have to contact the bank to verify deposit balances)
Business Lease no pull …unless your are PGing
Cash = very likely a pull, look at AML / form 8300 /etc in relation to dealers
If you pay cash they will need to file a CTR or SAR, but if you pay by check there is a record of paper where the funds coming from.