How does opening a new credit card affect your mortgage?

[hello]

Ive been told that opening a new credit card just prior to getting a new mortgage can affect your rates.  Can anyone explain how it would affect your rates, in what situations it would affect rates and how long that effect would last? 

For example, If I opened a new card today, would it affect a mortgage that I take out in 3 months?  or 6 months?

 

[daedalus]

I suspect in most cases it's due solely to the impact on your credit score.  However, there still may not be any impact on your mortgage rate.  In my experience it seems loan rates are based on credit score tiers, so if you're in the same tier before and after the credit card is issue, you'll get the same loan rate.  E.g., if your FICO drops from 830 to 805, your rate probably won't be impacted.  You can play with an online mortgage quote generator and plug in different FICO scores to see how it impacts your quote, and you can get anecdotes online to get a rough idea how much a new credit card might affect your FICO.

 

[YellowFever]

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[usctrojancpa]

So yeah. Don't lease or take out a loan to buy a car.  Pay for strippers with cash only, and just about anything else needs to be done with cash.

Careful, don't start taking out big amounts of cash out of your bank accounts or you'll end up explaining it in a letter of explanation to the lender (ask me how I know...call it a decent sized beat on Argentina when they were playing the US in the COPA America semifinals).