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Does opening up a lot of bank accounts in a year affect anything or look bad?

Ok this may sound like a dumb question but I just wanted to make sure I am not messing up in doing this.

I have opened up 4 savings accounts this year. ING Direct, Capital One, Citibank and WAMU (daughter's account). I am contemplating closing my checking account with WAMU, which serves as my spending account, and opening up a high yield checking account with someone else. I am just worried that all this activity might be recorded on some system or something. I know that banks have their own banking system but I only thought that was for folks who owe money or who are passing bad checks.

Of course this is definitely the last account I open up for a long time. I don't have any need for another one. I would just prefer to earn some interest on the money I have in that account.

Anyways, if anyone has any insight on this I would appreciate. I am just looking around at the moment. I definitely want to make sure I am not hurting myself by doing this.

Comments

Anonymous said…
here's a site that may be helpful:

http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs6b-SpecReports.htm#2

there are "specialty"/"consumer" reports available that are not the same as your credit report. however, i don't know the factors they use to come up with their evaluations of us. that may take a little more digging.
Dimples said…
Thanks for the link. I looked it up and it doesn't mention anything about my banking info being on the report. I did some research and couldn't find anything so I am confident that I will be ok.
SavingDiva said…
I think the only way that it will affect your credit score is if they do a hard pull when looking at your credit report. However, having a lot of bank accounts won't matter because they don't show up.
Rad said…
bank accounts don't show on your credit report so i don't see how it could hurt, unles you get a hard pull every time you open one. I'm sure the bank themselves ahve some form of a report that keeps track of how many accounts you have open, but it won't hurt your credit score as far as I know. nice link Sistah Ant
krystalatwork said…
No, bank accounts won't hurt your credit score. I had the same question when I wanted to close my chequing/savings accounts with a bank and open up new ones at a different bank.

If you're new, they COULD do a hard pull to your credit score, but they have to ask your permission first (at least I think they do). You should ask them before you sign up if they are doing a hard pull.

Otherwise, that's the only thing that could potentially hurt your score.
Single Ma said…
The answer is "it depends." Opening new bank accounts can only hurt your credit if the bank does a hard credit pull to verify your identity. The inquiry is what affects your credit score. Unfortunately, some banks do pull your credit to open checking accounts, but I've rarely heard of a hard credit pull for savings accounts. It could happen though.

Pull your reports and check the area that says "inquiries viewable by others" to see the number of hard inquiries that affect your credit. If nothing is there, then you're ok.

I think this recent post by Jonathan also explains it very well.
Unknown said…
Dimples,

Where are you hiding? You know I check your page everyday for updates.

D.C.

:O)

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