By Webster Tilton You can’t get much done without a line of credit. We all need it, and we’re all concerned about maintaining and improving our credit rating however we can. So it is useful to know when you should and shouldn’t apply for a new card. What factors make now a better time than...

By Webster Tilton

You can’t get much done without a line of credit. We all need it, and we’re all concerned about maintaining and improving our credit rating however we can. So it is useful to know when you should and shouldn’t apply for a new card. What factors make now a better time than later, or vice versa? Without this information you won’t know how to make an informed choice.

Here are a few things you should know:
1. Timing is important, but it all depends on you. It turns out that there isn’t a particular time of year which is better or worse for applying for credit cards. What you need to be worried about is how much time has passed since the last time you applied. Each application produces what is called a ‘hard inquiry’ to your credit rating, and too many too quickly can lower your score.
2. You should also avoid having a lopsided ‘debt to credit ratio’. What this means is, don’t apply for a new card right after you’ve taken on a considerable debt like a home loan. You might qualify, but you’ll get a much worse deal than you would if you waited until you’d made five or six payments and established that you are a good risk to lenders.
3. Lastly, keep your eyes open and pay attention. Credit card companies oftentimes come up with attractive offers that you should look into. The problem is that these offers are impossible to predict and some of them don’t last very long. From time to time the Federal Reserve raises or lowers its interest rates, and this can drastically impact what kind of sign up offers the credit card will make.
In other words: the best time to apply for a new credit card is no less than six months after the last time you applied for a card or took out a loan. Once you are into that time frame start shopping the available deals. If you don’t find one that works for you, keep checking. New deals arise all the time.