Originally Posted by yosithezet
Now you all have me scared about this FICO score which I assume is my credit rating. So if I get the card, make a small purchase and pay it off, then in the summer use it heavily for a few weeks and pay that off then cancel in the fall, how is that likely to affect my score?
It's the multiple credit applications (or inquiries) that screw you. They also factor in the age of your accounts. Young accounts count against you. The paying off/not paying off matters much less. Missed payments, of course, hurt. But paying the min or the whole thing ontime have considerably less effect than the number of inquiries and the age of the accounts. Bottom line- opening and cancelling a lot of them, regardless of what you do with them, will hurt.
Some have mentioned (this has come up before) that they're not buying anything soon and don't need a good score. I would never want to degrade my score in this way since one never knows. YMMV, of course.
Cheers.