How much will my credit score go down by applying for a new card?

Question

I would prefer answers from people who work in the credit industry and can tell me roughly the number of points, and how long it will take for my score to recover once the new higher available credit kicks in...

I know part of your credit score is determined by how much available credit you have. I closed several cards a few years back before I knew it would hurt my score, and now I have very little credit available. I have excellent credit otherwise, and pay off anything I charge the next month. However, I do have a balance I've been slowly paying down, and want to open a new card so that my balance takes up less of a proportion to my total credit debt.

How much will this ding my credit in the short term? And how long will the point drop last?

Answer 1

For starters, sometimes people who work in the credit industry may not know how credit works because there are too many factors out there.

Credit scores are a very funny thing, you make an inquiry and your score gets lowered, close a card too fast and score gets lowered, and if you don't spend your card for a while your score gets lowered, if you pay just the minimum for too long your score gets lowered, and finally if you pay off your card too fast and your score gets lowered

The best thing to do is get a reputable card such as a Master Card or a Discover Card, spend an amount that you can pay off in about 2 or 3 months and you should be fine....your score should continue to rise as long you make your payments on time and pay it off in a timely manner. Also it would help if you have no more than 2....1 credit card and 1 store card or just 2 credit cards.

Around the horn,
The True Side

Answer 2

There is no set number of points your score will go down for an inquiry, it increases based on the number of inquires you have over the last 6 month period. The whole idea is to establish risk, if you are applying for a lot of credit your this may indicate you're a higher risk as you are looking to take on more debt and some lenders may not be granting it to you. That said if you apply for a credit card and haven't applied for anything recently you should lose less than 5 points if you have many inquires over a short period it could be as much as 20 points. But these go away after 6 months, and if you do have a few inquires on your credit from buying a new car or house and shopping rates or something like that, write a letter to the lender where you are applying and explain that you were shopping for a car loan or a mortgage and they will disregard the inquires. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

There have been some good answers provided here, but I do want to note that while FICO scores MAY go down because of a credit application, they do not always necessarily go down, especially if you have had relatively few inquiries over a period of time (say 6 months to a year). BUT, let's say you apply for credit and are approved...even if your score should go down because of the credit inquiry, depending on your credit history, and depending on how you have used your new credit, your FICO score may actually increase (good rule of thumb: if you have a high credit limit, but a low (or no) outstanding credit balance, then your score can go up. But having TOO much available credit can also be bad (even if you have no or low balances) because then you have the potential to run up extremely high balances. In your case, it sounds like your score dropped when you closed a lot of cards, becuase you "lost" available credit, so proportionally, it makes the percentage of any outstanding credit balances you have a lot higher in relation to your total credit limit (say you had 10 credit cards with a limit of $1000 each - a total of $10K credit limit. If you had a total outstanding balance of $1000, then you have 10% credit used, 90% of your credit balance available. But if you close 5 of those cards, then your total available credit is only $5K, but you still have an outstanding balance of $1K, then your % of credit used has doubled to 20%, and you look more risky). However, over time (and assuming you pay down your outstanding balance), your FICO score will rise again.

I think somebody else mentioned it, but I'll say it again, you can go to myfico.com and play around with their FICO score simulators (but I believe you have to pay a fee to see how your specific score will be impacted - otherwise, there is no way for the folks at the Fair Issac COmpany (FICO) will to be able to see what might happen given your specific credit situation.

Answer 4

Tricky queston...it will immediatly go down from the credit inquiry (5-10) points. You say you have 2 card but you don't say the amount that is charged on them...the important part is not the credit limit but the amount you have charged. If you have more than 50% of the available limit charged on the cards your credit will go down. The more cards you have the wores it gets for your credit. The formula they follow is: 35% Payment History 30% Amounts Owed 15% Length of Credit History 10% New Credit 10% Types of Credit So whether it will go up or down depends a lot on what you already have going on...

Answer 5

An inquity generally only affects your score by 2-3 points. I know becuase I check my score daily thru a monitoring service and have seen the 'before' and 'after of an inquiry....its very minimal.

And it not how "MUCH" available credit is out there, its the percentage, which you do seem to understand. If you open a new card it will lower your average account age (which makes up 10% of your score) but it will also lower your utilization ratio (which makes up to 35% of your score)....so as long as you choose the card wisely and get approved, the overall impact should be that your score will go up, possibly by quite a few points.

Inquiries are only on your report 2 years and as long as there are only a few, its not too damaging.

Answer 6

General rule of thumb for balance available debt ratio would be less than 50% but less than 20% would be ideal. If you have open cards with $0 balance and cards with more than 20% balance to available credit, I would suggest a transfer to the other cards and making on time payments until all balances are at 20% or lower

Answer 7

It can go down by as much as 6 points, but usually only by a point or two. It depends on various factors, such as whether or not you're approved or denied, how many credit inquiries you've had recently, whether or not those were approved or denied, etc.

The inquiry will remain on your report for two years, but will only count against your score for one year.

A good place to brush up on credit scoring information is www.myfico.com

Also to get all three of your credit scores and the negative reasons codes (The list of reasons why you may have had points taken off your scores) http://www.myfico.com/12/Home.asp

This is from the FICO website and the ONLY place you can get all three of your REAL FICO credit scores. It is NOT free, but any site offering free credit scores is not using the real deal. These FICO scores are the same ones lenders use when determining whether or not to give you credit.

Also, ordering your credit scores through those free promotions ticks points from your scores, whereas ordering the scores yourself through the FICO website DOES show as an inquiry on your credit, it DOES NOT count against you.

The inquiry will remain on your report for two years, but will only count against your score for one year.

Hope this helps!

Answer 8

well i don't work with the credit industry, but when i was applying for a loan at the bank they told me it pulled your score down 6-7 points each time you apply for a new card. as for recovering it should only take about 5 or 6 months as long as you pay at least your minimum, but you really should pay a little more than that.

Answer 9

It's not that simple. They take in account how high of a balance you carry. Is every credit card maxed out? How long have you had accounts or are they all brand new? Some say make monthly payments over minimum. But, don't pay in full every month. That shows a better credit history. Most important - NEVER be late on mortgage, never be late on any payment. If you have derogitory remarks on report - write letters to resolve. DO NOT PAY FOR CREDIT REPAIR...they can make your scores worse.

Answer 10

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Stay away from shady reverse vin check sites, most likely you won't get any information after you make the payment. Not to mention you won't get a report and you won't get an answer if you try to call for a refund. Stick with a reputable reverse vin check site like http://www.reversevincheck.net that has been around since 1995.