There have been a lot of posts asking about the affect of CC apps on one's FICO score. Here is one case study, FWIW -- YMMV.

I have obtained 7 cards in the last 8 weeks:

HHonors AMEX Plat
PP Elite MC
Citi AAdvantage MC
Citi AAdvantage Business MC
Chase United Plus Visa
Chase United Plus Business Visa
Alaska Airlines Signature Visa

I checked my FICO before starting on this experiment and have tracked it since. It was 792. Seven cards and many miles and points and a boat load of credit later, my FICO is now 753 as of today.

For me, this is not a big deal. I am not buying a house or taking out a loan anytime soon. (Still, I will be in a cooling period for a while, as I would like to keep it above 750.) But for those who are looking to buy a house or something soon and who also want to collect cards for miles, I would recommend some restraint and perhaps some vigilence in tracking the FICO. According to published reports, above 750 gets 5.98% while below 750 gets 6.2%. I don't know the veracity of these figures; I am just reporting what the FICO tracking folks will tell you. I understand that lenders may also use other factors (such as income) in judging the rate they will offer. In any event, given that 7 cards resulted in a swing of 40 points, I suspect that a card or two here or there would not result in such a large swing.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

-N

Can you tell me where you pulled your credit score? I checked freecreditreport.com and they'll show you the records, but you have to pay to get the score.

www.myfico.com
Free for 30 days and fee thereafter. Sends you an email whenever your score changes.

Thanks so much to OP for providing empirical, factual info on this issue which has been endlessly debated in other threads in an impressionistic fashion.

Much as I am interested in FTers thoughts and impressions on this issue, hard date is very useful. ^

Anybody else want to post their hard data? @:-)

No hard data from me ..... but ....

Negociant - Great posting!

I opened and closed CC accounts, however, I did in a time frame of 10 to 12 month (not in 8 weeks, like you). The score went even up! Note: There are now (at least two) scores out there ... I wish our fellow poster Dr.Bond would comment on your topic "CC Apps Affect on FICO Score"

That is what I posted recently in FlyerTalk:

I'm guessing this is only for 1 of the three credit reporting agencies?

I'm wondering if your numbers might be slightly skewed or we're not getting the whole picture as the CC companies don't typically do hard pulls from all 3 agencies.

For instance I applied for UA Chase signature visas on 8/5 and 11/6, both resulting in Chase doing hard pulls ONLY from Experian. The other two credit reporting agencies show no inquiries and no change in credit score as a result.

I've paid myfico.com to get all 3 twice now. It is pricey at $30/pop (with coupon easily findable on google). I'm justifying it so that I can report hard numbers to the FT community after I kick it up a notch and apply for several other rewards cards.

My Equifax credit score from myFico.com is 740 after 92 credit apps in the last 12 months.

Remember, apps only count a max of 15% of your credit score.

That's what I call "negligible". Above 700 and you're good to go.

Great 8th post, Negociant. My experiences echo yours. Mahalo.

Wow, nice to know. You can get a whooole lot of points without really affecting your score.

How much will it go down when you start to close/consolidate those accounts though?


Thanks for the great posts guys!

[QUOTE=Ripper3785;7163739]I'm guessing this is only for 1 of the three credit reporting agencies?

I'm wondering if your numbers might be slightly skewed or we're not getting the whole picture as the CC companies don't typically do hard pulls from all 3 agencies. QUOTE]

This is a good point. I did only order up the service that sends alerts when the score changes -- from one of the three CRAs. Now you have me tempted to check on the others, but I think I will pass on that. I guess I had hoped that the others probably would be in the same ballpark.

Now before we get all excited let's look a little closer at the "DATA".
1. There are only FOUR banks involved here.
2. Two are BUSINESS cards.
3. We don't know the CRA ratio.

So speculation could also allow you to evaluate that one pull is 10 points or 39 points. It takes more data than this to feel like you have a conclusion. At best you have a hyposthesis from this data as posted.

This is usually correct, but there are cases where it can affect up to 20% of your score, but that is the max.

Now if you are not doing anything large in the next 12 months, do all the apps that you want to do.

A score alone is not the only factor that may cause a decline from a credit bureau. There is also the system response that negates the FICO Score:
"Excessive inquiries in the past six months."

I beleive the reason codes are actually part of the FICO system from Fair Issac. i.e. Reason Code 8 is "Too many recent inquiries last 12 months". Underwritting systems can choose to add weight to reason codes. For instance if the bank that issues the a card is concerned about churn they may opt to ding you an extra 20 points for a code 8.

The long and short of it is using FICO greatly reduces the underwritting process for the bank. FICO take the 200+ datapoints from the actual credit report and converts it into a simple score with about 40 or so plain english reasons why that score is the way it is.

For reference, here's all the data provided by Experian that makes up your credit report.

http://www.fairisaac.com/NR/rdonlyre...buteValues.pdf

My most recent inquiries had zero affect on my credit score, still 740.