Originally Posted by tripmaster
I opened a few Marriott cards to cash in on the points for a big family vacation.
What happens if I close those cards this year? Will it adversely affect my credit score, despite the fact that I've other longstanding credit cards with no balance (which I hear is more helpful to your score)?
Your credit is 'hard pulled' once by the bank when you open the original credit card. They hold your credit report on file for up to 3 years. All subsequent checks by the same bank will be done on the file on hold. So your credit report does not see these inquires.
Your credit report is based on many other factors also, such as total amount of revolving credit, total credit outstanding, amount carried every month on credit cards, etc. So churning a lot of credit cards does impact your credit but not as much as you would think.
Just read the fine print on these cards, a lot of them require that you hold them for a minimun of 6 months or they will take back the points.
Cheers