Inquiries

A credit inquiry is a notation that goes on your credit report every time
your credit report is accessed by anyone with "permissable purpose" as
defined by the Fair Creit Reporting Act. Inquiries remain on a
credit-report for two years, and generally fall in two categories;
hard and soft inquiries. Only hard inquiries from within the past year
can impact credit scores. Older hard inquiries and soft inquiries are
ignored by the scores entirely.

The typical hard inquiry is triggered when a lender access a consumer's
credit report and score as part of the credit application process. Hard
inquiries can also result from collection agencies using credit reports
in their skip tracing efforts.

credit.com