Can quickly cancelling a credit card affect my credit score? | Credit card reward programs | Discussion forum

Hi Natalie,

I don't know for certain that quickly cancelling a credit card would actually hurt your credit score but it definitely would not help it. Also, consider that length of credit history is one of the biggest factors (along with repayment history and proportion of credit limit used) in actually improving your credit score. Consider I only have a Scotiabank SCENE VISA on my credit bureau with a $1000 limit. Four years ago my beacon score was like 785 or something with perfect repayment history and three years of use. Fast forward today with the same R1 repayment history and now seven years of use and my beacon score is 815 with only one credit facility.

The one thing that will hurt your credit score more than cancelling the credit card quickly is the "hard" inquiry in applying for the credit card. My old Branch Manager told me that each inquiry only affects your credit score by "a couple" (maybe two or three) points but that is quickly recovered after a couple months so most people can safely have "two or three" "hard" inquiries per year without negatively affecting their score. That said, if you are always applying for credit, regardless of the number of inquiries, you may look like a "credit seeker" generally and some lenders may not like this, especially if you're applying for a mortgage.

In short, take the best promotional offers in conjunction with the best regular rewards program and card characteristics into account and sign-up because of the overall picture, not short-term gimmickry. It's not worth it to me. I'd recommend having one VISA, one MasterCard and maybe a third card of either variety with a small limit for online purchases plus your line of credit and/or mortgage.

Cheers,
Doug

Natalie, I'm glad I was able to help and answer all of your questions.

Cheers,
Doug