NZ credit bureaus provide a quotation enquiry type for exactly one purpose: letting a person shop for credit pricing without the shopping being scored like a pile of loan applications. A quote enquiry is recorded on your file, but it is treated differently from a hard application enquiry and is not meant to count against you the way a burst of applications does.
It exists because sensible advice (“compare several lenders”) and credit scoring (“many applications look like distress”) used to collide. The quote enquiry resolves the collision, when lenders and brokers actually use it.
That makes one question worth asking before you hand anyone your details: “Will this be recorded as a quote enquiry or as a credit application?” The answer tells you whether comparing will cost you anything.
The partner term is the hard enquiry, which belongs at the end of the process, once, when you proceed with a chosen offer. The full story is in our guide to quote enquiries versus hard enquiries.