When does a CC account begin to show "open/active" on your credit report, right after you're approved for the card or after you activate the card. I have a good FICO score, and don't want some CC's i've recently been approved for. How much will it hurt me to close them right after I receive them (I'm talking about approximately six cards I want to close upon receiving)? And if I don't "activate" the card will it ever show as an account on my credit card records?
Silver, A credit card account shows as open/active account once the lender creates an account for you. It doesn't matter if you receive the card and never use it, if the bank reports to the credit bureaus, that account will be there. From what Ive heard, closing accounts as soon as you receive the card will drop your score down considerably. If you want to close six cards immediately, thats going to hurt you. That will be six new accounts on your credit reports that will be closed immediately with no length of time established. That doesn't look good at all Silver. So, it may be in your best interest to hold some of those accounts open for at least 6 months before closing them. This may keep your score from dropping drastically all at one time.
Alan, can you clarify which FICO reasons are negatively affected by closing very new accounts? I thought if you have a good score already and don't need a new account, you can only improve your rating by closing it, because the average age of the accounts is improved.
