There is only one type of inquiry that is required under the FCRA to be coded such that it cannot appear in credit reports provided to others (which is the definition of a so-called soft inquiry). That is a promotional inquiry requested under FCRA 604(c) to obtain a listing of consumers who are found by the CRA to meet specified screening criterion. The inquiree does not get any specific account information; they obtain a listing of consumer names and addresses.
All other inquiries are subject to CRA policies regarding whether or not they are shown in credit reports available to others.
That includes internal periodic creditor reviews of their existing accounts, and consumer pulls of their own credit report.
Consumer-initiated requests for credit or other business transactions that have a legitimate business need to reviw the consumer's credit as part of the transaction always have the ability to be coded as hard. FCRA 604.
