When I performed my 13 card Super-Mega-App-O-Rama, on November 1, 2011, I committed to providing regular updates on the status of my credit score for at least six months. At the time I executed my massive AoR, I surmised that it would probably take about 6 months for my scores to recover. I don’t have any secret insight about the formulas credit bureaus use to calculate credit scores, but six months seemed like a nice number after which inquiries could disappear from the score calculation. Well, as it turns out, I don’t think six months means much of anything. My credit scores have show regular improvement, but a couple of the reporting services actually showed a dip in the final weeks, for which I have no explanation. See the chart below.
Despite some pretty substantial abuse to my credit profile, my scores are in pretty good shape. I should point at that I started with some depth to my credit file. The three bureaus currently report between 44 and 48 total accounts with average ages of 5.7 to 6.2 years. I suspect someone with a slimmer credit file would likely see a greater impact to their scores, while the opposite would be true for someone with a larger credit file.
You may remember that when I started this experiment, I had carefully mapped out my spending requirements as there were some pretty large spend limits I needed to meet. Thanks to the SkyMall promotion, some very high spend levels to fix a flooded rental home, and some Christmas shopping, I had little trouble meeting all of the limits. I wouldn’t like to set myself up for that kind of spending obligation again, but I’m pleased that I was able to manage it without resorting to anything too crazy.
The most important question to answer now is: When is the next churn? I don’t really know the answer to that question, but I’m actually not in much of a hurry. Spending six months on the sidelines has forced me to develop a bit more patience. There are definitely some cards I am eager to get, but I can also afford to be patient and wait for the big offers.