Inquiries occur when financial institutions check your credit report to evaluate your history before offering you a financial product, such as a credit card or loan. There are two main types of inquiries: hard inquiries and soft inquiries. Soft inquiries do not impact your credit score and are used for background checks or pre-approvals. Hard inquiries, however, are made when you actually apply for credit and can have a negative impact on your credit
score. Too many inquiries in a short period can signal financial instability, further damaging your credit score.

In the credit repair process, one strategy is to identify any unauthorized inquiries on your credit report and dispute their removal. When it comes to hard inquiries that were not made with your consent, they can be removed, potentially improving your credit score.
Additionally, it’s important to strategically plan the use of credit, spacing out credit applications to minimize the impact of hard inquiries on your report.