Financial Information
How does opening 4 credit card offers affect my score?
Question : How does opening 4 credit card offers affect my score?
8 months ago, I had a FICO score of 719 and my wife had 721. In this time we have opened 4 zero percent credit card offers with no balance transfer fees. So whenever the 0% rate is going to expire, we move the balance to another card.
So since we have reduced our credit card balances 30%. Right now we are saving for a house to buy in January. Based on the information we have given, what will our score likely be? How many points are negatively affected by opening 4 new credit cards?
I guess I am looking for someone who knows the answer, not clowns who are making false assumptions.
zero percent credit cards
Best answer:
Answer by ezd
It seems at the rate you are going, you will have many credit cards soon, based on moving the balances every time one card becomes interest-rated. Instead of applying for more cards everyrtime this happens, pay off your existing card every month. It will not take long for the card company to approach you with a card that has incentives. This could affect your credit score in a negative way. You could somehow miss a payment somewhere, and that would really hurt you. One of my professors who was chairman of the Federal Reserve for a short time always said, “One card for personal, and one to two cards maximum for business. If you need anymore, get a loan.” Hope this helps. Also, speak with a credit expert. They can help.
-
-
#2 written by Benzo 1 year ago
I can answer this from experience. Those high interests can be a killer. Transferring them to 0% is what I did. I love those 0% until balance is paid off offers. You save lots of $ in the long run. Don’t worry about these people, they don’t know what they’re talking about. You already know that there will be a slight ding on your credit (10-15 points). But it’ll be back up by January. Don’t close those accounts with high interests though. Just cut them up or put them in your drawer. Good luck.
-
#3 written by SPIFIMAN1 1 year ago
The small dings for the inquiries should be far outweighed by the increase created by the lowering of your debt to credit ratio which accounts for a full 30% of your score.
It’s not the amount of credit available that hurts you it’s the usage ratio.
Say you have 5 cards with a $ 5,000.00 credit limit on each for a total of $ 25,000.00. You could have 1 of them maxed out and as long as you had no balances on the other 4 your usage would still only be 20%.
Keep your total debt under 30% of your combined credit limit and your score will be fine.
It’s only an estimate since I don’t know anything about your credit profile except for the 4 credit cards but I’m thinking mid 700′s by January as long as nothing else goes wrong.
Good luck on your home.
-
#4 written by MVD34 1 year ago
…4 credit cards in 8 months is a lot…I can’t tell you in points because its depends on many things…
However, all things being equal, 12 months before you buy a house (for the first time) you should do NOTHING except pay down your debts and clear up any incorrect or troublesome open items on your current credit report.
It might be worth it to you to go to Equifax.com and look at their Score Power product or 3-in-1 credit report plus score power…I think the 3-in-1 plus is about $ 50…just a one time score is $ 15. These will give you your current score and give you a frame work on what to do to get ready for the home purchase next year.
Do NOT open any more credit cards.
-
#5 written by mcstir 1 year ago
Any amount of open credit (even if you have a zero balance) counts as open credit. In other words, if you had five credit cards with a limit of $ 1,000 each, that would be $ 5,000.00 credit showing up in a credit check. The reason this counts against you is that you could possible max out all that credit and then owe $ 5,000.00 which would take away from your ability to pay something else, like a mortgage or large loan. If you don’t need these cards, close them off. A line of credit usually has a lower interest rate anyway.
-
#6 written by candi h 1 year ago
calm down on the inquiries and opening of new accounts. Good history comes with good history and years of good payments. Each time you applied for credit your score goes down. I’m not sure of the amount but I’ve heard something like 8 points each. Plus the rapid amount of credit cards may seem risky when you go for the loan in January. Just make sure you pay the cards every month and please do not keep opening 0% cards. By doing this you do not get the history with the banks you need and get nothing but inquiries that take 2 years to come off.
- Comment Feed for this Post
We can’t tell you what your FICO score is now.
However, you can go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com and get a free copy of your report. You are entitled to 1 free credit report from each of the 3 bureaus each year. You have to go through this site to get it. Usually, I pull my report from one of the 3 every 4 months. That way- they are spread out through the year.