This post originally appeared February 2, 2017 on CreditCards.com as “Canceling new card won’t restore credit score”
By Barry Paperno
Dear Speaking of Credit,
I have three credit cards with average age of 15 months. My credit score was excellent. I applied for a new credit card from at a store four days ago. I got the approval, but it has impacted my credit score negatively. Regardless of the hard inquiry, I want to cancel it to regain the age of my credit history and higher credit score. If I close it, will I regain my previous score? What’s your suggestion? – Hanna
Dear Hanna,
One of the great things about having an excellent credit score is that for the most part you can just continue to manage your credit as you’ve always done, often without even giving it much thought. Another great thing about an excellent score is that as long as payments continue being made on time and credit utilization (card balances/credit limits ratio) is kept as low as possible, the score can recover relatively quickly – typically within six months – from some of the lesser “offenses,” such as opening new accounts.