How much will my credit score go up if I add a new credit card to my wallet? (2024)

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When you're in the market for a new credit card, it's worth considering the short- and long-term impact that adding a new one could have on your credit score. While doing so won't automatically make it go up or down, what happens next largely depends on the type of credit card user you are.

Select spoke with Ted Rossman, senior analyst at Bankrate, about how acquiring a new credit card can either positively or negatively influence an individual's credit score.

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Most credit card issuers will perform a hard inquiry when you apply for a new credit card, and while this stays on your credit report, the negative impact it will have on your credit score will usually only last a few months, but sometimes up to one year.

There are five factors that influence your FICO® score — payment history, the amount owed, the length of your credit history, credit mix and new credit —and opening a new credit card has the potential to either improve or worsen it, depending on your payment habits. Here's a look at the breakdown of factors that contribute to your overall FICO score:

• Payment History (35%)
• Amount Owed (30%)
• Length of credit history (15%)
• Credit Mix (10%)
• New credit (10%)

The length of your credit history comprises 15% of your FICO credit score and includes important details such as the age of your oldest and newest accounts, the average age of all your accounts, how long certain accounts have been open and how long it's been since your accounts have been used.

Rossman notes that when people open a new credit card, doing so essentially lowers the average age of their credit accounts.

"I would say for most people, the total impact is probably not going to be more than 10 to 20 points and probably shouldn't linger more than like three to six months," says Rossman.

Rossman, however, advises that people refrain from opening a new credit card if they plan on taking out a larger loan in the near future, such as a mortgage. Depending on your payment behavior after you open up your new card, your credit score will either increase or decrease. If a cardholder continues to make their payments on time and in full and keeps their credit utilization ratio low, this will reflect positively on the two FICO categories of payment history and the amount owed.

Your payment history is actually the factor that has the biggest impact on your FICO credit score — accounting for 35% of it —and is based on whether you're making payments on time and in full on your credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans and finance company accounts.

Furthermore, the amount owed category is affected when you open a new credit card. This factor alone makes up 30% of your FICO credit score and consists of the amount you owe on your accounts as well as different types of accounts, their balances, the number of accounts with balances and your credit utilization ratio.

One of the most important parts of the amount owed category is your credit utilization ratio, or the ratio of credit you're using to the amount of credit you've been extended. For example, if you had a monthly credit limit of $10,000 and only used $2,000, that means you would have a credit utilization ratio of 20%. Experts generally recommend that people keep their credit utilization ratio under 30%, though under 10% is an even better goal to aspire to.

FICO tends to heavily weigh an individual's credit utilization ratio in the calculation of their credit score because according to one of its recent reports, those with a high credit utilization ratio are more likely to fall behind on payments, either now or at some point in the future.

When you open a new credit card, you have an opportunity to reduce your credit utilization ratio — since your credit line is being increased —and improve your payment history. Both of these things can help provide a boost to your FICO® Score.

You can check and monitor your credit score with a free credit monitoring service like CreditWise® from Capital One and Experian. And using a service like *Experian Boost™ can you help you quickly raise your FICO® Score* if you're trying to achieve a fair, good or excellent score.

It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, really: If you're interested in increasing your FICO® score by opening a new credit card, the type of card you're able to qualify for actually depends on your credit score. People with very good or excellent credit scores (above a 740) can typically get approved for cards that come with large welcome bonuses, generous rewards rates and lower APRs.

These kinds of consumers might opt for travel rewards cards such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card which has a lucrative welcome bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards® points for new cardholders who spend $4,000 within the first three months of account opening, or the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card (See rates and fees), which offers 2% cash rewards on all eligible purchases and has a $200 cash rewards bonus for cardholders who spend $500 in purchases in the first three months of card membership.

While consumers with good credit (670 to 739) or fair credit (580 to 669) will have toopt for cards with fewer perks and rewards, there are still some great options available.

The Chase Freedom Flex℠ is a solid choice for those with good credit scores, allowing cardholders to receive 5% cash back on combined gas station and grocery store purchases (excluding Target and Walmart) on up to $12,000 spent in the first year.

Cardholders with fair credit will be limited to cards offering minimal rewards such as the Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) and the Petal® 2 "Cash Back, No Fees" Visa® Credit Card. The Capital QuicksilverOne carries a modest $39 annual fee but offers 1.5% back on all eligible purchases.

If you think you'll be able to make all your payments on time and in full, it might be worth going with the Petal 2 Card over the Capital QuicksilverOne because it lacks an annual fee.

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Petal 2 Visa Credit Card issued by WebBank.

*Results may vary. Some may not see improved scores or approval odds. Not all lenders use Experian credit files, and not all lenders use scores impacted by Experian Boost.