Is opening and canceling a credit card in a week bad for your credit score?

DEL asked:


I have an opportunity to save $30 on a TV by signing up for a credit card. Will it hurt my credit score if I open it and cancel it in a week? I know you’re not supposed to cancel cards you’ve had for a while, but I wasn’t sure about this.

Dora

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4 Responses to “Is opening and canceling a credit card in a week bad for your credit score?”

1. ISS Says:
   December 20th, 2008 at 3:58 am

   Your credit takes a hit every time you apply for a card. Not sure about cancelling though.

2. Carlii Says:
   December 21st, 2008 at 5:33 pm

   It would depend on your personal credit file.
   has some great info on how the bureaus come up with your credit score… you’d be surprised at what people look for!

   For example, I used to be a loan officer for a mortgage company. If someone had $10k in medical bills, we didn’t care. If they had maxxed out credit cards, though… we had to come up with an excuse for the lender to hear.

   A direct link to some free downloads on credit score information -

3. kevin f Says:
   December 24th, 2008 at 5:39 pm

   Yes, the general rule is that you never want to completely cancel a credit card if you are planning on applying for a loan, mortgage etc in the next 24 months (unless their is an annual fee or something) because this does hurt your credit score. I would leave the card account open but cut the card up. This explains it much better than I ever could -

4. Colin S Says:
   December 26th, 2008 at 11:49 am

   That really depends. If you intend to close it there are several factors you need to look into over the entire transaction. And in my opinion the negatives outweigh the positives…

   1 - A search hit on your credit history (negative)
   2 - Increase in your overall outstanding line of credit (neutral)
   3 - Increase in your credit line (negative)
   4 - Full payment before due (slight positive).

   To truly take advantage what you should do is not close the card immediately, but keep it to buy more things instore for discounts and use the card at least twice a month and never more than 30% of the overall balance and pay before the due date on your statement.

   Use it to build your credit score so it does not be a burden. You can get more data at

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