I signed up for an American Express preferred Blue card and got approved for a limit of $25,000. I have a 830 credit score. I realized that the places I shop don’t accept that card and you have to pay for it yearly so I canceled it.
Then I decided I was going to get a Costco Visa. Once I signed up the credit limit was only $5,000. So I canceled that one. So I stupidly signed up for a Wells Fargo Visa and that was $4,000.
Don’t leave yet and please don’t make fun of me but I’m not done being stupid. I decided I wanted a different American Express card and when I signed up for it the credit limit was $2,000 so I canceled that one.
Again I know I’m fucking stupid but how bad did I just fuck up my credit?
Talk about a life lesson. Credit cards shouldn’t be a willy nilly oh this one sounds fun. They should take research, making sure it’s what you want.
When I lived in the US (before the subprime crash), my neighbors used their dog’s name to sign up for all kinds of free lotteries on the internet.
One day, they were sent a pre-approved credit card with their dog’s name on it.
Also, finding out the card isn’t used anywhere and canceling it shouldn’t count against your credit score.
Credit scores at total bullshit in the first place.
It’s credit, a loan, and I’d say this is actually great example of why it’s useful. OP showed one after the other how likely they are to take out credit. Like it or not OPs behavior is a warning sign
Warning sign of what?
That you don’t know enough about credit. Or fraud.
I can agree to that.
Their main issue is all of the sudden hard pulls for new accounts. Each one hits your credit for something like 30 points. I expect doing that over and over rapidly increases that ding each time. They dont want to loan you money if you are desperate for money, so they hit your score if you ask for too much too fast.
Their second issue, credit utilization, i.e how much credit you have that’s not in use, is affected each time they cancel a card. That’s hitting their credit as well, as each canceled card closed reduces their total unused credit percentage.
Between the two, i wouldn’t be suprised if that 830 is 600 right now. The good news for OP is that the new credit dings wear off fast. If they just stop opening credit cards, their credit will be in the 800s again in a few weeks.
Credit score is ‘who can we fleece for the most money’ so that checks out.
100%. It’s a coordinated judgement about who they can get to reliably make them a profit. “Pays the bills on time” is the biggest factor in your credit score.
If you look at each of them (payment history, how much credit is open and not used, how long has the credit been open, how often have they asked for more credit recently, how many types of credit do they have i.e house/car/cc) they all have to do with figuring out if you will pay them.
If the answer is yes, they will give you a giant whirlpool to spend. Once you have it you will likely make them a profit, because almost everyone does. Credit scores are just a way to tell if it’s worth hooking you on “easy” money.
Credit scores are mostly fine. They do only one thing. They provide a good measure of how likely you are to pay back a loan. Thats it.
What other companies decide a credit score means and how they use that is bullshit.
Costco only accepts Visa and I didn’t know until after. I’m an idiot.
My cycle is:
You don’t know the limit until you sign up
a credit card shouldn’t be about the limit at all. Even with a big project you could have just done it in parts or only done on part on the card. You should never take out cards for a higher limit.
you could have just called and asked for a limit raise.