Multiple inquiries by potential creditors MAY affect your score negatively.
For example, differing credit card companies making an inquiry...
They are going to assume you are "about" to obtain more credit, prior to the companies that made the inquiries commencement of reporting of that "new" part of your history.
Conversely, if several mortgage companies and banks start making inquiries, the chances are very good that your score will NOT be impacted.
Why?
DEPENDING on the banks you applied to, AND your existing credit history, the chances are good that the software will figure out that you are shopping for a mortgage and will NOT lower (or raise--it depends) your score for trying to get the best interest rate and terms.
They DO NOT lower your score for inquiries made by you.
FICO stands for Fair Issac Company. Your FICO score will differ from the 3 agencies.
By law you are entitled to 1 free report from each of the 3 once a year. Unfortunately, your free report will NOT include your FICO scores.
The free report is obtained from Annualcreditreport.com (All 3)
NOT freecreditreport.com