JC Penney Mastercard Upgrade: How did it affect your credit?

[Anonymous]

Hello!

For those of you who received the upgrade this year (2016), how did affect your credit report?

I am applying for a home loan and don't want to mess anything up.

I called JC and they said your old account shouldn't show as "closed" but as "transfered".

I know that the mastercard is technically a new account (curious if this has an impact on your credit score).

At least there is no inquiry on your account because we didn't apply for it.

Can you tell me what happpened to your credit report??

[newhis]

The JCP Mastercard will show as a new account, so that will lower your AAoA and most likely will drop your score.

[morgacj2004]

Only for people who have a thin credit history. Otherwise I would say little to no impact. I always prefer a MC or Visa upgrade such as what I got with Sears and Gap 

[wasCB14]

Refuse the "upgrade" if you can. There's nothing to gain by quite possibly making the home loan lender nervous with a new account (which can mean delays or potentially worse terms).

You don't show your cards in your signature, but if you can qualify for a home loan, maybe you already have a better MC than the JCP one? Maybe you'd get a higher CL, but the marginal value the MC offers over the store card may be low.

[Anonymous]

Yeah.  I have a lot of accounts and this is not my oldest one.  I think at worst it might drop my score by 3 points according to the stimulator on credit karma.

However, I am in the middle of a pre-approval for a home loan.  I hope I didn't mess myself up because it was activated on Monday.  I didn't think this through beforehand. 

[Anonymous]

I think u should be ok. It was an upgrade. So technically credit you already had. You might hv to just write a letter of explanation. Probably a good idea to give your loan officer a heads up so there will be less confused when your lender takes a 2nd look at credit before closing.

[MJ-san]

Keep your letter that said it was an upgrade, the UW may need to document the file. It will likely ding your score 3-10 points, so hopefully you weren't on the borderline for a specific rate. 

I had both JCP and PayPal upgrades and that's part of what's keeping me over 5/24 for Chase I absolutely HATE that Sync does this -- it's strange that Citi does it with Macys (adding the Amex is a new TL) but not Sears (upgrade shows with a date opened to match the previous account). 

[Anonymous]

I checked credit Karma today and my score dropped by 4 points.  I also have a closed account and a new opened account.

Booo

[newhis]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I checked credit Karma today and my score dropped by 4 points.  I also have a closed account and a new opened account.

Booo

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Sometimes credit Karma score drops while FICO score stay the same.