A credit inquiry is a listing of the name of a creditor or authorized user who has accessed your credit file. Credit grantors will request the information before offering credit on an application.

Some examples of those who can access your credit files are:
Creditors or Credit Grantors
Collection Agencies
Insurance Companies
Employers

Many people don't know that you can actually DISPUTE any credit bureau inquiries that you feel are erroneous. This is done the same way you would dispute any other inaccuracy on your credit report. Each of the 3 main credit bureaus have different procedures to dispute items - sometimes it can be as simple as filling out an online form.

The reason the credit agencies treat mortgage inquiries is that they know you are not going to buy more than one home at a time and allow "shopping" for a lender. Compared to a credit card, lenders know that each inquiry could result in approval and spending of the appoved amount on the same day.

You as a consumer are allowed to obtain your own credit report as often as you wish with no damage to the report or score. When you pulling your own credit, the inquiry is known as a 'soft inquiry', rather than a 'hard inquiry' typical with applying for a mortgage or other consumer credit.

Requests for your credit report information (called “inquiries”) will appear on your report every time you apply for credit. Looking for new credit can equate with higher risk, but most credit scores are not affected by multiple inquiries from auto or mortgage lenders within a short period of time. Typically, these are treated as a single inquiry and will have little impact on the credit score.

Having credit inquires from different industries will lower your your score. Example would be, a mortgage pull, auto pull, and a credit card pull. Each of these pulls will negatively impact your score, as opposed to having 3 mortgage pulls.

Too many credit inquiries in a short period of time can lower your credit score.

When shopping around for a mortgage make sure that you shop with at least 2-3 different companies to make sure you are getting a good deal. Don't worry about too many credit inquiries lowering your credit score as long as you shop smartly. As long as you shop for your mortgage within a 2 week, 14 day, period of time, all of these inquiries will only count as one inquiry (for credit scoring purposes). There are still many companies who will tell you not to shop around because your score is borderline, which there could be some truth to it it you are having mortgage companies pulling your credit over an extended period of time, and if anyone else pulls your credit it may lower your score to where you will not qualify for their loan. Therefore, shop around for a mortgage with a couple of companies just do it around the same time and don't procrastinate it over the course of months.