credit rating ?

[lightheart]

anyone know if having multiple bank accounts factor into credit scores?

here's where we are at, all things are in both hubby and my names,

we have a regular checking account that is our main account, probably have had this one for 5 years

we have another checking account that we use for online stuff, we have had this one forever

we're wanting to open an intrest checking account that will become our main account....

(the bank said we would have to open a new acount, that they could not just relabel the regular checking account as intrest and us be able to keep the same account number....)

does it matter to the credit rating folks the number of checking accounts we have or how long they have been open for?

didn't know if we should keep the regular checking open... we still have tons of checks and having the account is free, all we have to do is make sure there is some kind of activity every so often which wouldn't be a problem, could deposit a quarter....

we have never had an overdraft

our credit is good now and we will probably be in the market for a new car towards summer

[velochic]

We have 3 checking accounts and our credit score is excellent. I doubt that it affects it at all unless you get them mixed up and end up with fees and fines, etc.

[Stace]

Checking accounts don't factor into your score unless you go around bouncing checks repeatedly and end up in Chexsystems.

[zersha]

It wouldn't affect your credit score unless the bank decided to pull your credit report in order to open this new interest checking account. Then an inquiry would show up, and would slightly lower your score.

[tynme]

It doesn't matter how many checking accounts you have, but I believe most companies will look at how much money you have in those accounts. We had four accounts, two checking and two savings, one of each was primarily for Ebay, therefore balance was very very low. We were adviced to close those accounts because when the time came to get a morgtage or loan for anything, that they are going to look at these accounts and question why there was no money in them, even though the other two accounts were big! They won't hurt your credit though

[ChattyCat]

I wouldn't worry about it.

I have a Wells Fargo account with about $15 in it. I've had it for about 10 years. When we live on the West Coast, it's our primary checking account. When we live on the East Coast, our Wachovia account is our primary and would only have abou $15 in it.

I've applied (and received) 4 (very competitive) mortgages with this situation with no problem. No one has even asked why. Multiple checking accounts don't matter in and of themselves.

[SusannahM]

I agree, it doesn't matter except for the pulling of your credit report if they do that, but even that doesn't matter that much. For a mortgage, they usually want to see a statement to see how much money you have in some accounts, but that's just to get proof of your net worth. I'm suprised a PP was asked to close accounts with small amounts. When we were asked to show a balance statement for our accounts, after they looked at one, they said, oh, well, that's enough money to qualify for the best rate, and didn't even really look at the rest at all.

[lightheart]

Thanks everyone!