About how long does a new credit card hurt your score for? I have heard for about 3 months - up to a year. I have 2 new credit cards on my report from last month that lowered my score a bit. Thanks for any insight!
if your talking about FICO, then a new account can lower your score up to 3 yrs, but its a ratio game, Its done total life average. so if you had 30 accounts all 10yrs old and 1 new, Your score might not move at all.
Thanks for the input. Your response actually leads to another question I have. Is FICO score one particular credit report (Eq, Ex or TU) or is it an average of all 3 together? Thanks!
Each CRA has its own FICO score, just as they do their own credit report, Traci. So there is not one FICO score, but three.
The inquiries used in opening the accounts lower your scores on those reports they pulled to open the account, probably for a few months. The newness of the accounts can lower your scores for longer on those CRs they report to, depending on your overall average account age. The increased available credit will gradually raise your scores thru lowering debt to available credit ratio as the negative effects fade, provided your total debt stays constant. For a year or so after taking out a mortgage, your scores can drop, but after that they seem to go up, assuming you have a record of on-time payments, presumably from factoring in the type of the account. Even though your overall debt appears higher, you have a corresponding asset in which you presumably have some equity, and you would have had rental payments before anyway.
