topic New Cards and Score in Understanding FICO® Scoring

New Cards and Score

carl1167 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 01:32:32 GMT

I'm a newbie to the board, so please forgive me if my questions are redundant. I have recently been approved for DiscoverMore(CL 5.5k), Visa Platinum(10k) and Mastercard World(7k). These are my first major credit cards with large CLs. Will this improve my score or will it stay the same? I started working on my credit with a score of (2008) 509 and apparently according to the last pull by USAA I was at 688. My only major credit card prior to now was a Orchard MC with CL of 300 as I got it when my credit score was 550. I'm hoping I receive some kind of bump with these new cards. Any knowledge in this area is most appreciated. Thank you......awesome site!

Re: New Cards and Score

jamie123 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 03:22:23 GMT

It really depends....

Your scores will not just go up because of higher credit lines. If you do however have a high balance percentage on your existing credit cards it will reduce your utilization percentage which will raise your scores.

Don't forget that you will get a small hit to your scores for the hard credit pulls for the new cards. This will disappear after 1 year.

You do need to have a minimum of 3 credit cards to maximize your scores so the new cards will definitely help with that.

So....To answer your question more succinctly. Might not do much to your scores short term but in a year you will be golden!

Congrats on the new cards and welcome to the forum!

Re: New Cards and Score

carl1167 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 03:30:09 GMT

Thank you! Probably shouldn't have but, applied for another card awaiting answer from the forum. Was approved for citi diamond preferred 2k cl. Looking to get in mid 7s soon as I need to refi the mortgage.Thanks for your knowledgeble answer!!!

Re: New Cards and Score

bettercreditguy1 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:10:22 GMT

congrats. You have some very nice entry level credit limits. +1 to Jamie's response. Let things ride for a year or so as the inquiries and hits for "new accounts" will diminish by then.

Re: New Cards and Score

carl1167 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:19:42 GMT

Thank you! So, do you think my score will decrease, increase, stay the same? Need to refi my house no later than May of 13 and hoping for a high score prior. Thank you for your assistance. I'm so un-knowledgeble in this arena.

Re: New Cards and Score

jamie123 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:29:42 GMT

You need to read up in the "Credit Card" forum here. You must learn how to properly use and pay your credit cards to help increase your scores. With proper management of your credit cards your scores should be significantly higher by April.

Don't get anymore cards or other credit until your mortgage closes!!!! You need at least 6 months from getting new credit and applying for a mortgage without raising lender's concerns.

You did really well getting these new cards. They will benefit you in the long run.

Good luck!

Re: New Cards and Score

carl1167 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:31:23 GMT

Never mind. Jamie, actually answered and I missed it. I need to just leave it alone and not charge anything and in a year I'll be good. Assuming, my scores should be good by May when I need to get out of my current mortgage rate. Thank you for all your help!

Re: New Cards and Score

jamie123 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:36:03 GMT

No! No! No!

YOU MUST USE ALL YOUR CARDS EVERY MONTH AND PAY THEM OFF CORRECTLY!!!!

If it was as easy as just putting our cards in a sock drawer to have good credit we wouldn't be on these forums! It doesn't work that way!

Read. Read. Read some more.

Re: New Cards and Score

carl1167 — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 04:37:27 GMT

Thanks Jamie! I'm done, guess I need to find a garden. Don't really know what that means. Assume, let it grow. Thanks again, big help.

Re: New Cards and Score

Shogun — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 05:56:56 GMT

Small charges and then pay the bill works good for these cards to let them grow. If you're going to buy something anyway, use the card, then go online and pay it!

Re: New Cards and Score

mtrsprt — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 23:39:13 GMT

From what you stated, you just opened 4 new accounts in the past 30-60 days? If your score doesn't drop 25-30 points, I would be surprised.

Re: New Cards and Score

llecs — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 14:19:38 GMT

Ditto on the drop, though I think most will return by the time you refi.

And you don't need to use them monthly. They will still report monthly regardless of use and FICO will score accordingly. Just use them every 3-4 months at a minimum to avoid closure due to non-use.

Re: New Cards and Score

my-own-fico — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 14:43:27 GMT

llecs wrote:

They will still report monthly regardless of use

Are you sure? My experience is that no use of a card in a given month doesn't update the account's Date of last activity field in a credit report.

Re: New Cards and Score

llecs — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 16:19:31 GMT

Of my 20 or so CCs, all of them update monthly despite months of non-use. Admittedly I haven't studied the DOLA field in that relation, but a new "OK" appears each month so the TL is updating.