Hi everybody, I've just about completed a long(2 year process) from low score hell. My scores were around 400-500 and are now all at around 750. If I could do it then I know everybody else can. My question is that all of my credit cards are sub-prime i.e. capital one, providian except for an amex gold I have. I want to get away from cap one and providian and get prime cards, however, I don't want to kill my score by having a lot of inquiries and also since my sub-prime cards have history will my score decrease by closing them and getting new cards? what do you guys think? Thanks a lot!
just pick the cards out (millcbs.com comes to mind) so the inquiries are spread across the 3 bureaus. Most creditors only pull one. Make a game plan. Apply for all the cards you want/need in one month. Get them. Enjoy them, and dont worry about the score dipping. It's gonna happen.. There's a smart guy around here that did like i said and got about 10 prime cards in a very short period of time..
You might want to leave one or two of your sub prime cards open for a little while to keep your average age of accounts higher. I was in the same boat as you not too long ago. I got a little too excited about cancelling all the crappy cards, did them all at once, 5 cards, some over 8 years old. Next thing you know, my score dropped a ton as the age of accounts issue came up as the number one score factor with all three CRA's. Sam has a great point about spreading the wealth. Find out who checks which report, then apply for a bunch all at once. You'll take a hit no doubt, but better to do them all at once, rather than leaking down more every month.
Just curious while we are on this subject. Assume you sit down at the computer and start applying for cards unti you apply for twenty or so. Say this takes a couple of hours. Will the cards you apply for later in the session pickup on the fact that you are on a credit card aplication spree? Or does it take hours or days for the inquiries to post? I understand that most cards only pull one report, so this question relates only to those inquiries that show up on one reprot.
I'm not sure if it's hours. But inq. hit my CE in about 24 hours. My guess each credit report pull hits your profile almost instantly. Don't know if the FICO score reacts that fast. Best regards, Mirage
