MidnightVoice wrote:
New credit once every two years. Assuming a new car loan every 4 years, that is a new CC every 4 years also
Scout1965 wrote:
I guess the FICO gods don't want FICO high achievers to seek any new credit.
I was interested in a phrase that TheNewWorldMan used on another post. He said that the ones who get really killed with new accounts are those with "long thin" histories: in other words, those who have history going way back, but relatively few accounts. So mathematically speaking, when these people get new accounts, there isn't enough "mass" from older existing accounts to minimize the damage to average age. This would mean that the traditional FICO High Achievers, with very few accounts, would definitely get hurt.
DH has only a couple of open TL's, but he has this fascination with signature loans from our credit union, so when (if!) the American Express AU account ever posts, it shouldn't do much damage.
Even without my admittedly high number of new accounts, I did fit the "long thin" category, probably the only area in my life where I do!
The only item listed by EQ as hurting my score was - You recently opened a new credit account. Your newest account was opened 1 month ago.
EQ listed the following as helping my FICO score:
1 - You have no missed payments on your credit accounts.
2 - You have an established credit history. Your oldest account was opened 19 years,10 months ago and the average age of your accounts is 9 years.
3 - You've limited the use of your available credit - ratio of your revolving balances to your credit limits 12%.
4 - You've shown recent use of credit cards.
TU on the other hand, slammed me for this one item:
1 - You have made heavy use of your available revolving credit. (Same balances as shown on EQ as a positive item.)
And EX, well we all know that they don't play well with FICO. 
Oh well. No more new accounts for me. Really wanted the Home Depot card because we want to put in hardwood flooring... And, the water heater is on its last leg.
