SHOULD YOU APPLY FOR DIFFERENT CARDS ALL AT ONE TIME OR SHOULD YOU SPREAD IT OUT OVER A FEW MONTHS? I'M LOOKING FOR A BALANCE TRANSFER CARD, DEPARTMENT STORE CARD, AND A REWARDS CARD.
The specific answer depends on your credit file. Typically the first inquiry on each report costs 'the most' points, ~5-10, each additional inquiry on each report costs somewhere around 5. So if you find one of each which checks only with one bureau as a hard inquiry (store checks eq, cc checks tu, rewards checks ex) you would have three new accounts, with only a ding for each's first inquiry. The problem you will run into is for cc & rewards, they'll possibly pull at two or more inquiries from two bureaus, getting you at least a 2nd, and maybe a 3rd ding in the score. So, you may want to try limiting it to only 1 or 2 store cards, and a regular cc account. Everything in your report is cumulative, if you have a thin file, the dings could be larger, if you have a thick file, the dings could be smaller.
