My wife and I have been doing what would likely be considered "mellow churning" for several years - getting points mainly through credit card sign-up bonuses for apx. 3-4 credit cards per year each. My credit score is 781 and I believe my wife's is about the same or maybe slightly higher.

We might be applying for a mortgage in the next couple years and I've seen advice cautioning not to apply for new credit cards if you plan on applying for a mortgage. Considering our credit score has remained high through the years do you think we're ok continuing to apply for a few new cards each year or would it be best to not to?

Thanks.

I do two to three cards per year and keep one very old card. It has never been even a mild concern with our mortgage or refinance. If you aren't rolling over a balance on a cc, then I don't think a mild churn will be held against you. I do recall that for our initial mortgage I avoided cc apps for about 6 month prior.

Thanks for your response uncflyer16.

Ya, we pay all our cards in full each month and aren't rolling over any balances. We have 7 credit cards each, including a couple that we've had for over 10 years. Would still like to churn 3-4 per year if it won't hurt our chances of getting a mortgage.

Anyone else have anything else to add?

I don't know how it's been in the past, but from my experience, I recommend not opening any new credit cards, within 6 months and maybe even 1 year of applying for a mortgage these days.

I applied for a mortgage 14 months ago and then refinanced 4 months ago. I had high 700s credit score prior to the initial mortgage and had not opened any cards within 12 months. The application was painful, but fairly smooth.

However, thinking I had gotten a pretty awesome rate and would not need a new mortgage, I began opening a few credit cards (3 in total). Then, rates dropped even more and I applied for a refinance. This time, the bank (same as the initial mortgage) began asking TONS of questions. The process dragged on for a few weeks as I had to call and email the bank multiple times for each credit card. Luckily in the end, the refi went through but I strongly believe if I had opened more cards (say a total of 6 cards over 6 months), I would've lost my rate lock or been denied.

Tread carefully when applying for a mortgage. Banks, having tightened up heavily, are asking for detailed documentation with every moderate to large deposit/withdrawal as well as any new credit inquiries.

I haven't had any problems with being a mild churner. As long as you pay off your balances you are in a good situation. When I got my last mortgage in October, I had to explain the recent new card (within the last 3 months) but otherwise no issues.
I can also verify that business cards do not impact mortgage applications. I am in the process of getting another mortgage and they do not show on the credit report pulled nor has my broker asked for an explanation.

Yeah, just got a loan and had no issues with churning (probably 9-12 in the past year). They look at far more important things such as ability to pay back the loan, funds to close, etc...

Did have issues with amazon payment deposits, tho

When In refinanced 18 months ago, they asked why I applied for multiple CC in the 6 month period before the refinance. I had to write a letter expalining the reason for each credit card app. I told them the cerdit apps were for bonus miles. Refinance went through without any problem.
I refinanced again this month. This time I waited till the refinance completed to apply for for CC instead of dealing with the hassle of giving them an explanation.

Thank you all for those responses. That's helpful - though the answers (your experiences) sure vary widely. We're not sure when we'll find property to buy, so it sounds like we might as well continue our "mellow churn" and take a break once we find a property we're potentially interested in.

leftpinky - curious what the issue with Amazon Payments was. We sometimes use it to meet our minimum spends.

From Dec until Mar both my wife and I applied for 5 cards each. In March we decided to refinance and the bank asked why so many new credit cards. I said it was all for the miles and they had no problem with it. I even applied for two additional cards in the middle of the process. I have excellent credit and very low debt to income so that's why they said it was no issue.

What was the Amazon Payment issue? I'm curious about that too.

Yeah, HUGE problems with amazon payments and also fido. Amazon payments is basically treated as cash if you can't provide a valid business reason for it. If you comingle funds into a bank account that cannot be traced back (cash, money orders probably), there are big issues. I had to explain why there was so much/many "cash/cash advances" into the account. The guy said my account was the craziest he's seen in 25 years, even tho I'm nowhere near Marathon Man and others on here. 4x25k for fido for wife, 2x25k fido for me, plus 2-3k in AP the month in question.

Basically if you want to do anything like this, AP, Venmo, Fidelity, etc...it is better to have a seperate bank account that they don't look at so you'll never have to explain anything or run into problems.

It's nice to hear that many banks take a common sense approach and weigh credit scores, credit utilization rate, ability to repay debt, etc. far more heavily than the credit card applications that our peculiar hobby requires. As someone who intends to refinance this year, I suspected this was the case, but was a bit concerned because it's taken as such a rule of thumb: Don't apply for credit cards beforehand. Those of us who have good credit scores and the ability to repay our debts should be fine, it would seem.

I have been churning cards for the last 18 months and have approximately 15 new lines during that period. Most of the lines are still open but I have closed some like CapOne, Continental, and a couple others. I am considering a refinance and was wondering if anyone has had experience refinancing and any suggestions from mortgage companies that seemed ok with it? Also, how should this churning be explained to the refinancer?

Not refinancing myself as I'm waiting out the bubble (a little longer than expected thanks to TARP and a bunch of other alphabet soup programs keeping the charade going). But, given that the entire mortgage market is now public domain, I doubt any underwriter is much more than a dot-the-eyes-cross-the-tee's-bureaucrat.

That said, I would 'explain' the churning for exactly what it was -- you wanted 'free stuff' and all it cost was a credit inquiry. I only say this, because how else would one 'explain' a churners credit profile? The truth makes the most sense. Regardless... since the underwriter no longer really does risk assessment for a private bank, but, merely assures that the loan can confirm to Federal standards -- so the loan can be sold to one of FHN or FRE (likely got the tickers wrong since they've been de-listed).

Long story short, I'd just tell them that you were churning for bonuses, but, I doubt they would understand or care, and it would probably wouldn't make a difference anyway.

I helped a friend refi recently. Friend had done quite a bit of CC bonus gathering over the last few years--20-30 accts on credit report.

It was a non-issue. Refi went right through.

No issues here either. You may have to write a letter explaining why you applied. Just be honest, you should be fine.