Credit impact - Was offered a preapproved 100K HELOC - take or not take

[Anonymous]

Hello,

This weekend, my wife and I opened a new checking account with Citibank and during the process it popped up that we were preapproved for a 100K HELOC.  Our credit scores are 800+, and have very little debt (just a small mortgage <100K on a 350K home).  If I take the HELOC I get their best checking account for free (citigold) and wouldn't have fees when we transfer money internationally (the primary reason we're opening the account).  I'm hesitant to take the HELOC as I didn't know what the impact would be our credit scores.  There's only one instance where I may actually use part of the HELOC (wife's a pianist and we're looking to buy a grand piano for her soon).  We're thinking of purchasing a larger home soon, so I'm being very cautious not to damage our scores in any way.

Can anyone explain to me whether an unused HELOC affects a score negatively? 

Any information would be of great use.  Please let me know.

Thanks!

Jeff

[llecs]

Welocme to the forums!

If you are going to apply for a mortgage or refi, then I'd do that first. A new TL, like a HELOC, can hurt your FICO scores. The damage is temporary, and probably won't hurt your rate chances at all if both your scores are in the 800s, but the points lost slowly return of the course of a year, with most coming back within 6 months or so.

An unused HELOC doesn't hurt your scores at all.

[Anonymous]

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@llecs wrote:

Welocme to the forums!

If you are going to apply for a mortgage or refi, then I'd do that first. A new TL, like a HELOC, can hurt your FICO scores. The damage is temporary, and probably won't hurt your rate chances at all if both your scores are in the 800s, but the points lost slowly return of the course of a year, with most coming back within 6 months or so.

An unused HELOC doesn't hurt your scores at all.

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Is a HELCO considered a revolving account or a mortgage account on your CR?

[haulingthescoreup]

It's termed a mortgage account, but if the CL isn't very high, the balance is included in revolving util. I don't know exactly where "very high" is, but we think it's somewhere around $40K. I know that $50K HELOC's aren't included in revolving util, but TU 98 is a little different on this. I just pulled a TU report, and my only negative is high util, at literally 0% (no cards reporting balances.) Yet the HELOC balance never displays in my total of revolving balances. It does show up on the TU sim, though.

I figure that since most lenders now pull the later version of TU, which I think regards HELOCs strictly as mortgage.

That's a lot of "I figure" and "I think"! "D

[Anonymous]

Had 2 HELOC with bank of america, reported 2 bureaus revolving and one as a mortgage, dont remember which were which. Posted a note that said 'secured by real estate' when i  pulled my own report.