Went a little wild--how long to recover?

[Anonymous]

So... I went a little wild and opened up 7 new credit cards (prior to this, I had 8 cards, the first of which was opened 3/15; I went on a spree and got four just about a year ago...). I was approved for all of them and some CLIs on my existing cards.

For reference, here's the haul:

American Express Everyday - 1k
American Express Blue Cash - 1k

Discover It - 1k

Capital One Quicksilver One Mastercard - 1k
PayPal Extras Mastercard - 3k
Virgin America Signature Visa - 5k
REDcard - 300 (blah, wish I'd skipped applying for this one)

Basically, I did it because I *might* need to have access to credit, in a pinch (...and, okay, also because I was a wee bit tipsy).

Now I have 30k total credit, which is more than enough to help me weather this particular storm (my ex had a severe breakdown and I'm now supporting our son solo while finishing my last quarter of school. I'm not worried about being able to pay it off--all I've really put on them is a legal retainer, on a 0% APR card, and I'll get that retainer back once it's over. also, I already have a well-paying contract lined up for summer. So no stress there. This is just to make sure I don't have to stress as I take on a bunch of additional expenses.

But yeah, it definitely dropped all my scores 20-30 points, which is understandable. Any idea how long will it take me to bounce back, assuming my utilization stays low and I don't get any derogs? Inquiry-wise, I now have 11 EX / 8 EQ / 6 TU that are under a year old. My CCT now calls me a "credit seeker" under EQ (which, clearly true...)

I did get most of the cards I applied for, only a couple of rejections. Obviously I lowered my average credit age... I should've been a little more thoughtful, I'll be sticking to SP CLIs or gardening for a while. ...But I did get some cards I'm excited about, at the same time

Anyway, what's done is done. My next need for a credit check won't be for around 9 months, when I apply for a new rental home.

Just wanted to hear your thoughts on how long it'll take to bounce back

[sarge12]

If anybody can successfully predict how long it will take for someones credit to recover from an app spree, especially when they do not know how much credit age your other cards have, they can predict earthquakes. There is a lot of credit knowlege on this forum...but fortune telling is not something we can learn. We can say that it is not good for your credit in the short term especially, but that is about all I can do. About 9 months ago I had 4 apps in about 2 months, and I was prepared for a huge drop, but if it dropped at all it was very little. Guesses are about all anybody could do, and since you know more about your profile than we do, I expect your guess would be better than ours. It does not matter anyway...what is done is done...and you can not reverse it.

[Anonymous]

Ah, I didn't realize it was quite so mysterious. Thanks

[sarge12]

If your other credit was 25 years of credit age the AAoA would not be affected as much as it will if it is 2 years of age. My scores are all above 800 by a little. If I could answer that question, they would all be 850, because they have been stuck at this same level for about 5 years. We can tell you what experience has taught us that you should or shouldn't do to get a very high score. Frankly, if you had asked me before you apped for 7 new credit cards to supplement your 8, I would have predicted a lot greater drop than 30 points, so maybe I just stink at prdictions and someone else can give a better answer.

[Dalmus]

Given that your oldest card was only two years old, the biggest impact (unless you've maxed them out) will be to your average age of acount...  You likely have an AAoA of less than one year now, which creditors aren't particularly fond of...  the older your AAoA, the better.  Do you have a mortgage or paid of car loan or something that would add some depth to your AAoA?

 But since your scores are already in the 650's, I'm not sure how much of a hit you'll take...  Lower scores aren't affected as much by lower-tier factors.  You might not see too much of a score hit, but you're also not likely to get any decent credit limits for a while.

[sarge12]

I obviously was not too good at reading the op's first post...he did say his first acount was opened 2 years ago. So the good news is these now 15 accounts will all be aging and probably getting good cli's. Five years in the future having 15 cards and probably 100k plus credit limits will make utilization easy to manage provided he PIF. That is what I have now 5y3mo AAoA on 15 cards and my scores are 809, 809, and 818. The immediate score hit will be worth it for the future upside of these accounts provided he manages them well. Having that many will then insulate him from wild score fluctuations due to closing one or two accounts or opening a new account. It will also keep him from having to worry about utilization changes if you let 3 or 4 cards report as opposed to just 1. Handled well this could work out just fine for the OP.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses

My AAoA is now 3.6 years, post spree. I opened my first credit card two years ago, but I had a few student loans (My oldest account is 14 years) that seem to have balanced it out. I was terrified of credit as a teenager, and then I was a stay at home mom for years and everything was in my husband's name.

Yes, I do also have a modest auto loan that I'm currently paying on and have had about a year.

No missed payments in 3.5 years. I had some late payments on student loans from about 4 years ago, and I have 2 medical collections on TU, 3 on EQ (the worst of which has about a year until it's gone).