The final section is the inquiries section. This is a listing of everyone who has obtained a copy of your credit history. Inquiries are divided into two sections. “Hard” inquiries are ones you initiate when you fill out an application for credit. “Soft” inquiries are initiated by companies that want to send out promotional information to a specified group of consumers or by your current creditors who are monitoring your account. The soft inquiries are only shown on reports given to consumers. FICO scores have at least a 30 day buffer period where auto and mortgage inquiries are initially bypassed and not counted. It also counts two or more “hard” inquiries in the same 14-day period as just one inquiry.