 TITLE: How Does Opening Multiple Rewards Credit Cards Affect My Credit? CONTENT: Virtually every time you apply for credit, the lender will check one or more of your credit reports and may review your credit score. This process helps them assess how you've managed credit in the past and determine whether to approve your application.\nCredit checks associated with applications for credit typically result in what's called a hard inquiry appearing on your credit report. In general, an additional hard inquiry on your credit report won't impact your credit score much—according to FICO®, you can expect to see your score drop by fewer than five points.\nIf you apply for multiple credit cards at the same time or in short succession, however, the negative impact can be compounded and hurt your score more. This is primarily due to the fact that applying for multiple credit accounts in a short period raises your risk as a borrower in the eyes of creditors. As a result, it's best to space out your credit card applications and avoid unnecessary inquiries to avoid putting yourself in a difficult position.\nOpening a new credit card can also impact your credit score if it lowers your credit utilization rate. This rate is calculated by adding up your credit card balances and dividing that figure by your total available credit across all your cards. A high utilization rate can hurt your credit. But if you add to your available credit without increasing your balances, your utilization rate will go down, which can help improve your credit score.\nAnother way your credit score can be impacted is the new account's effect on the length of your credit history. One of the factors in credit score calculations considers how long you've had credit as well as the average age of your credit accounts. New accounts can bring down this average, which can potentially have a (small) effect on your scores. END