Significance of 3/6 months?

[Anonymous]

I've noticed that a lot of people apply for cards with gaps of 3 or 6 months in between applications or sprees. I know that inquiries fall off after 2 years and stop affecting your score after one year, but what's the advantage of applying for cards 3 or 6 months apart instead of applying whenever?

[myjourney]

Good question and welcome to the forum 

My personal stance is the 6 month rule and here's why based on my preference

1) applying every 6 months allows my scores to increase for the next spree and all cards to age together

2) INQ's stay on CR's for 2 years but stop affecting scores after one year aging together again

3) Every six months HP's drop off

So here's what I did over a 2 year period 

Every 6 months (spree) (4) total

Every 6 months INQ's fall off 

Every 6 months INQ's turn a year or 1 1./2 year old etc etc 

Every 6 months I have spending history on the new cards 

As of today I have 3 HP's left which were spread over the 3 CB's 

EX 2 falls off 6/15

EQ 1 falls off 6/15

TU 0 fell of 12/14

Leaving me zip....nada...0 in 3 months 

[Anonymous]

If INQs stay on your report for 2 years, what do you mean by HPs falling off after 6 months?

[vanillabean]

People who are spree-happy tend to be close-happy too, because otherwise you would soon wind up with a lot cards that you probably have little lasting interest in, including those with high signup bonuses that come with an annual fee. So not only do inquiries fall off, cards do too! The 6 month rule is no more than a distribution in time that allows you to keep a fairly low profile. It doesn’t work forever of course as credit card companies will begin to notice a pattern at some point. It should noted by the way that the impact of any given inquiry does not lessen in any way throughout the first year; the impact of new credit does, but that’s something else.

[myjourney]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If INQs stay on your report for 2 years, what do you mean by HPs falling off after 6 months?

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Example spree every 6 months 

12/2011

6/2012 

12/2012 

6/2013

Turns one year old no fico scoring 

12/2012

6/2013

12/2013

6/2014

HP drop dates every 6 months 

12/2013

6//2014

12/2014

6/2015

Wash rinse repeat every 6 months and there's always HP's aging to the 6 month, 1 year, 1 1/2 year or 2 year drop mark

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've noticed that a lot of people apply for cards with gaps of 3 or 6 months in between applications or sprees. I know that inquiries fall off after 2 years and stop affecting your score after one year, but what's the advantage of applying for cards 3 or 6 months apart instead of applying whenever?

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There's no real advantage to relying on a specified timeframe.  People do so because they're advised to do so for various reasons.  Any real advantage (or disavdantage) comes from the shape that your credit is in versus simply a matter of X time.  I've applied for cards on the same day, within a day, within a week, within a month, etc.  Understand the factors that impact your credit and how they affect the assessment of your credit versus relying on some sort of fixed timeframe.

That said, the impact of inquiries does taper and fall off before the inquiries actually fall off.