Background: 804 FAKO from CreditKarma; 761 FICO per last Discover statement. But I just did pay down about $10k in cc debt since the last statement, so I expect that score to go up closer to the FAKO score (hopefully).
Current balances/limits:
CitiAadvantage 12k/31k
B of A Visa 0/15.8k
Discover 0/16.5k
Chase Slate 9k/15k
NuVision (credit union) 0/5k
I have been "in the garden" for quite some time; but considering apping for a few cards (Ritz-Carlton 140k points Visa, Amex, perhaps a balance transfer card)
I know the inquiries and lower AAoA will ding my credit rating some. However, for sake of argument- if I were to get $20k CL's on both new cards, all else equal my utilization would come down quite a bit- my new utilization would be about 16%, versus the current 26%.
My question- I know it's difficult to predict- but is it possible that over the first year (while INQ are still hitting score), my score would actually go UP based on the lower utilization outweighing the negatives? After all, util is 30% of the score, versus only 10% for INQ.
I ask because there's a chance (albeit small) that I may be applying for a mortgage in the next year. So obviously I want to be careful about dinging my score too much. But that Ritz Visa looks might tempting, I think it could save me $4k-$5k in the first year alone if I'm shrewd in using it.
Any opinions appreciated.
