Driving Down my Credit Score
Refinancing. Check.
0% Chase card. Check.
0% Citi card. Check.
Bill Me Later account. Check.
0% USAA credit card. Check.
If you look at my credit moves over last six months you might guess that I was trying to drive my credit score down. It is not true. How my credit score changed is an important lesson.
When I was considering how to leverage my credit I first decided I wanted to keep my credit score as high as possible before refinancing because the rate and fees there are so large. This made me put the refinance effort first. I also knew that I wanted to be taking more advantage of my credit. This made me examine 0% credit card offers.
I was actually a little bit surprised after refinancing the house, applying for getting, and maxing out two credit cards how little my credit score actually moved.
But I find now, after the inquiry for Bill Me Later, the new account opening and the inquiry for the USAA credit card my credit score finally taking the serious hit that it so justly deserves (Just kidding, I think thousand of on time payments over tens of years counts for a bit too). Because of the inquiries and the new account opening my credit score plunged over 10 points on a single day. I found this out thanks to the myFICO ScoreWatch service.
I my credit score to fall given all of the activity that I’ve instigated and had been quite surprised the previous months that I hadn't seen more of a move in my score.
It's easy to see from this example that it takes quite a collection of individual events to move your credit score dramatically. I consider this all an interesting experiment in what moves credit scores. I'll I will not be applying for new credit in the near future. We'll see how quickly it takes for my credit score to bounce back to where it was before. The hope is by late this year my credit score will have rebounded again giving me the opening to start new 0% accounts and keep leveraging my credit to help earn income.