Still a scam! The outcome is I now have a lower score than if I would have ignored their “recommendations” and if I cancel the card that won’t put things back the way they were and possibly make things worse.
No. In order to build your credit, you needed more diversity. There is a short term hit, but after, it will be higher than it was before. It is just like working out. If you are weak, you will not be able to lift much weight. If you start lifting weights, you will be sore for a short time, but after you will be able to lift more.
This company that has taken it upon itself to track my credit tells me, hey you should get more credit and then turns around and lowers my score when I do? That is BS.
That is not what happened. The credit bureau, that tracks your credit as requested by its primary customers (the credit grantors), told you that one thing you could do to increase your credit score is to open more accounts. You decided to do that, and as a result took a small short term hit for three reasons:
- You added an inquiry.
- You added a new account.
- You lowered the Average Age of (your) Accounts (AAoA).
Were you to close the account, your new account would go away, and your Average Age of Accounts would return to where it was. The single inquiry would not have much impact and your score would very quickly (one month or so), return to where it was.
If you leave your new account open, and use it responsibly (always paying on time, never carrying a balance more than 9% of your card’s limit,
etc.), within a few months your score will not only be return to where it was, but be higher than it was and be more resilient.
I understand your frustration, but this will be good for your score (assuming your use it responsibly). It is too bad that people do not understand enough about how credit scores are calculated, but be clear, despite your earlier statement, no matter if you applied for a new card from their recommendations or, as you did, one you found yourself, you would have taken a hit to your score.