Soft inquiry tied to prescreening or offer selection instead of a completed application for new credit.
Promotional inquiry means a credit-file review tied to prescreening or marketing selection rather than to a completed application. In plain language, it is the kind of inquiry that can happen when a lender is deciding whether to send a borrower an offer.
Promotional inquiries matter because they help borrowers understand why file-access records do not always mean active borrowing. Some inquiries exist because a lender was screening for likely offer candidates, not because the consumer requested immediate new credit.
They also matter because this term helps separate marketing-stage activity from final underwriting. That distinction can reduce confusion when a borrower sees file access but does not remember applying for anything.
Borrowers encounter promotional inquiries in connection with Prescreened Offers, mail offers, and certain marketing or selection processes that rely on file criteria. These inquiries are generally better understood alongside Soft Inquiry and Permissible Purpose rather than alongside a normal Hard Inquiry.
The term also matters when a borrower is deciding whether to use Prescreen Opt-Out rights to reduce this kind of offer-driven screening.
A borrower receives a card offer in the mail after a lender screened credit-file criteria for potential customers. The file access behind that selection is better understood as a promotional inquiry than as a full application inquiry.
Promotional inquiry is not the same as a hard inquiry. It reflects offer-stage screening, not a completed application for new credit.
It is also different from an Account Review Inquiry. Promotional inquiry is about offer selection, while account review inquiry is about an existing account relationship.