Credit reports

[Madeinhb]

That doesn't make sense...but I have heard of that. The fear being that you can then max out the credit cards once you get the next line of credit, is that right?

Not max out. But like - say I'm planning a trip to Hawaii. I might want to open the Hawaiian Airlines credit card. Spend the 1k in like first 3 months to get X amount of free miles. If a person has too much credit, the new card will say - they have too much credit and need to close some.

Edit - wait read yours wrong. Yea CC company fear of too much open and going into too much debt they don't get paid.

[Irving]

I've been denied a credit increase and they said it was because I had X amount of available credit on another card that I wasn't using. I don't have many cards and I don't have very high limits (imo), but with almost zero debt, they don't want to hand out credit.

[Bailey Guns]

The only thing to watch for by opening new accounts to take advantage of 0% rates (besides the transfer fees already mentioned) is new credit account applications. It's got a low impact on credit scores but opening any new credit acct almost always dings your score a bit. And it lowers your avg credit age which can also be a negative factor with a bit higher impact.

It's always something...

[KevDen2005]

The only thing to watch for by opening new accounts to take advantage of 0% rates (besides the transfer fees already mentioned) is new credit account applications. It's got a low impact on credit scores but opening any new credit acct almost always dings your score a bit. And it lowers your avg credit age which can also be a negative factor with a bit higher impact.

It's always something...

Yeah I got dinged pretty good because of that in the past when I had several checks done on it. I thought they changed the law saying a credit check was no longer a ding against your credit or am I wrong on that?

[hurley842002]

Yeah I got dinged pretty good because of that in the past when I had several checks done on it. I thought they changed the law saying a credit check was no longer a ding against your credit or am I wrong on that?

It still hits your score, I had two hard inquiries done within a short time frame recently and my score dropped 3 points, not terrible, but it could be the difference between a poor/fair/good/excellent score.

[Irving]

Soft inquiries like checking your credit for an insurance rate have less of an affect than a hard inquiry like applying for a loan.

[OneGuy67]

I use Credit Karma and I actively watch my credit score change every couple of weeks based upon payments, credit card use, etc. They also advise me if new credit has been opened.

[00tec]

I use the "Credit Wise" that I have with my Cap1 card. Has a little simulator that can show what potential impact certain actions have, such as closing a card, paying down, or increasing debt.

The credit limit increase stuff is spot on. When I totalled my car and paid it off, before financing the new(ish) car, I requested limits on my cards. My score jumped significantly.

Reminded me, just requested increase on my Home Depot card that has a zero balance, for giggles.

[hurley842002]

Soft inquiries like checking your credit for an insurance rate have less of an affect than a hard inquiry like applying for a loan.

Yeah I should have clarified, mine were hard inquiries.

[hurley842002]

I use Credit Karma and I actively watch my credit score change every couple of weeks based upon payments, credit card use, etc. They also advise me if new credit has been opened.

I use the same, have the app set to give me push notifications for any changes.