Applying for new credit is generally what hurts your score. Ordering a copy of your own credit report or
credit score doesn't count. Those mass inquiries made by credit card lenders, who are trying to decide whether to send you an offer for a pre-approved card, also aren't going to hurt you, either -- unless you actually take them up on their offers. If you want to minimize the damage from credit inquiries, make sure that when you shop for a mortgage you do so in a fairly short period of time. The
FICO score treats multiple inquiries in a 45-day period as just one inquiry and ignores all inquiries made within 30 days prior to the day the score is computed.