Will applying for multiple cards negatively impact my credit rating?

[Anonymous]

I recently became debt free for the first time in 40 years and am now managing my credit proactively. I have a perfect FICO score and only two credit cards remaining in my portfolio. One is a bank Visa card with a $25k limit, the other is a Sears (Citibank) consumer Visa card with a $2000 limit. I am looking to sign up for additional Visa rewards cards (one each) for airline, hotel, and just plain rewards. Will applying for multiple cards (up to three or four) negatively impact my credit rating? I am planning to cancel the Sears card and since I carry no balances on either that card or my bank Visa, it should not affect my credit score. But should I cancel it before or after I apply for the bonus cards?
 
Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Welcome and Congratulations SoydeSD!

Applying for credit negatively affects your credit score, hence the aphorism to only apply when needed. Cancelling your Sears card is not going to necessarily help or hurt your score. If you have no balances, then canceling the card shouldn't affect utilization or score, but is there a valid reason to close it? It will not provide any scoring benefit to close it.

But another point: when you open a new account, a few things occur. First, you may suffer a ding for the inquiry(-ies). Second, when the new account hits, it will a) reset your AoYA, if you have no other young account on your CR, and b) lower your AAoA.

All three of these can lower your score (INQ, AoYA reset, and lowered AAoA). Consequently, some ppl chose to apply for multiple accounts together so as to take advantage of their scores before they are lowered by the AoYA reset, and lowered AAoA. You can somewhat mitigate INQ dings by possibly spreading them among the CRAs if possible for CC apps.

However, since you have a perfect score, you are in the high end buffer because when no balances report, you suffer a ~15 point penalty, yet you still have a perfect score. (You should always carry a small balance for maximum scoring benefit.) Since this is the case, you may very well be able to apply without seeing much of a point loss. Good luck!

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I recently became debt free for the first time in 40 years and am now managing my credit proactively. I have a perfect FICO score

What do you mean by that? What score? In what scoring models? Where is the information from?

and only two credit cards remaining in my portfolio. One is a bank Visa card with a $25k limit, the other is a Sears (Citibank) consumer Visa card with a $2000 limit. I am looking to sign up for additional Visa rewards cards (one each) for airline, hotel, and just plain rewards. Will applying for multiple cards (up to three or four) negatively impact my credit rating?

Yes of course it will

I am planning to cancel the Sears card and since I carry no balances on either that card or my bank Visa, it should not affect my credit score.

It most certainly will

But should I cancel it before or after I apply for the bonus cards?

It doesn't matter one way or the other

Thanks!

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[FinStar]

Hi @Anonymous, welcome to the myFICO forums.

I have created a new, separate thread since you replied to a very old topic. The subject title has been updated as well to reflect your main question.

[FlaDude]

I would keep the Sears card for the help it gives your AAoA. While closed accounts can stay on your reports for up to 10 years, they can also drop off sooner and you'd lose the age that account gives you.

[Anonymous]

Thank you @FinStar you actually threw me for a minute ... I thought I had screwed up I went back and edited my post before I realized that you had done the good deed thank you!