How many new accounts is too many?

[Anonymous]

Just curious how many new accounts is to many in a 6 month period and 12 month period. I know there is no set rule. I'm just curious what people's thoughts are on this.

In regards to FICO scoring, being denied for new cards for too many new accounts.

[Anonymous]

One every 6 months seems to be the absolute highest frequency if you want to be able to get in with the stricter lenders without recon since this naturally equates to 4/24 and doesn’t scream churner or fraud as much.

Of course you can still get denials regardless. If you have a card you really want, look up their UW criteria and garden for it but otherwise, just grab the cards you want I say. If it’s a denial, it’s just an HP which will fade from scoring in a year and from your report in two.

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Just curious how many new accounts is to many in a 6 month period and 12 month period. I know there is no set rule. I'm just curious what people's thoughts are on this.

In regards to FICO scoring, being denied for new cards for too many new accounts.

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As you said, there is no right answer. It's profile and issuer dependent. 

Any answer you get will be about what that particular person thinks it's too many. People who have 3 cards will tell you one is too many, those playing with full deck will ask you what "too many" means. 

I personally do not have an opinion on what constitutes "too many" because I can see why both sides would think they are right. 

In my case, two accounts in six months were the reason I almost got  a denial. I dont find that excessive, but the bank did. 

[Shadowfactor]

I’m currently at 9/12 and 4/6 and 20/24.

Just added two business cards this past week. No one has said no yet 😂. USB gave me 16.2K which really surprised me considering my revenue is around 2K a year.

I wasn’t planning on adding those 2 business cards but a points redemption I thought would be possible is no longer possible and it’s shifted my honeymoon plans so I needed to open an AA card to get all the miles I needed for an upcoming trip.

And there’s a reason I chose business cards to add instead of personal as I’m really getting up there with my personal credit and new accounts. Want to leave that allow for quite some time.

I wouldn’t follow in my foot steps though, but if you have a nice thick profile with some 8-10 year accounts. You may have more leeway then someone that’s just starting off and trying to build a thick credit profile.

[coldfusion]

That depends on the context behind "too many" but since everyone's credit profile is different there is no one objective answer.   

One is being given a clear message that a threshold has been reached when denials start coming from multiple issuers.

[FinStar]

@Anonymous- echoing what others have metioned upthread, it's largely profile dependent among a few things.  But, for context, you can reference some recent threads where similar topics come up for discussion:

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/How-many-is-too-many/m-p/5305804

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/How-many-new-accounts-is-too-many/m-p/5248832

[kdm31091]

There's no one size fits all answer, but in the current credit enviornment I think it's a good idea for anyone, regardless of profile, to really space out new accounts. Banks aren't taking well to churning, many new inquiries, new accounts, etc and in many cases, an impeccable profile or score doesn't matter.

I would recommend 6 months between new accounts.

[Anonymous]

What affect does opening new accounts have on spending limits when opening a new card.

I've seen people say you will be stuck with low limit cards if you open a lot of accounts close together.

[Anonymous]

DCU definitely didn’t like all my new accounts but Synchrony and NFCU didn’t mind them with NFCU Platinum at $7200 after they just gave me a $4500 CLI on another card, Amazon at $1800, PayPal at $8000 less than two weeks later.

It really depends on the lender. I know that Barclays doesn’t like new accounts but Capital One is said to not like new accounts yet last night I am prequalified for Savor, Savor One, and Quicksilver — the 25.74 and 26.74% APRs and the notable lack of the Venture seems to suggest for less than $5K but they’re there. US Bank didn’t even question me about new accounts today when I called to verify it was me who put in the card app and they’re said to be very sensitive to it too so who knows.

I do know that DCU would have given me more when I apped for their card if I hadn’t added any new cards in the last 6 months because they flat out told me so and every time I check Disco prequal for a second card, the number one reason they don’t have an offer for me is new accounts in the last three months and Synchrony used it as the second reason my PayPal CLI denial letter.

[Lucifer]

My own opinion is 1 or 2 a year but I have gone years without any new accounts.      Personally I had gone over ten years recently without adding a credit card.    I grabbed a couple (total 30k in new CL) and now I won't probably get a new card for years.

The way I look at it.....the studies have been done.    It has been shown that people that open a lot of accounts in a short period of time are proven higher credit risks.    So then I think, do I want my actions to lump me in with people that are more likely to default or be late?  Umm no....  and then that keeps me well in check when ever I even think about a new account.