Score Increase

[Zanror23130]

Something wierd i thought just happened. I had 0 inquires in the past two years and have consolidated my credit cards from 8 to 4.(Discover/2x BofA/Citi) I have a total limit of 15k. Current score was 747

I just decided to get some new major cards and tried my luck at some CLIs. I apped Freedom and Amex BCE, both instant approved. I got a cli with my bofa for 900 and took a hard for it which showed up on my scorewatch.

Just today scorewatch jumped to 772 with what should be 3 hard inquiries. My utilization was 9%. Just thought i would share. Can anyone help explain?

[BrokaToe]

Well Amex will nearly always pull EX where BOA generally pulls TU for an CLI.  So those inquiries wouldn't of hit your EQ report.  As far as Freedom, from what I know, they could pull any report, probably depending on where you are located.  Did you have any baddies or lates fall off of your EQ report within the last month?  Or was your util higher than 9% the previous month and you paid it down to around 9%?  Some possible reasons I can think of.

[variableResistor]

Utilization has the greatest impact on your score provided that you have no public records(Child support,Bankruptcy, etc) or collections. Inquires have a very limted impact. Opening new accounts however can have a more significant impact on your score by reducing your Average Age of Accounts(AAoA).

[BrokaToe]

This is true, but as the OP stated, they saw a nice increase in score, not a decrease.

[Zanror23130]

No baddies or lates on my report. I had an AAoA of 5years. Now im assuming it would half that sittign at 2.5 after these new accounts.

Both new accounts were opened right after another btw. The Cli was minutes before the new accounts. I am thinking the AAoA is not that big compared to the utilization.

I was sitting at 9% and will probably be around 2-3% after the new cards.

[Zanror23130]

Yes, my util was 24% last month. it showed 9% this month.

I run about 1100 a month through my discover card and pif every month. My last purchase was around 4k that took me a couple months to pay.

[BrokaToe]

Yah, I would definitely say that you lowering your util is the major factor in the score increase