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I applied for a credit card, intending to use an offer for no interest for X months on a purchase from the retailer offering me the card. They accepted the application, but informed me that I couldn't use the card until it arrived in the mail. This was unacceptable to me, so I closed it immediately.

What effect should this have on my credit report, credit score, and credit history? Is there any action I should take to reduce any detrimental effect?

I am aware that this caused a query to show up on my credit report, and I have received a credit monitoring alert about a new account.

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Assuming you're talking about the USA you will have

  • A credit inquiry
  • A new account
  • A change in credit utilization/total amount of available credit
  • A change in average age of accounts
  • A closed account (eventually.... whenever they report the closed account)
  • A change in credit utilization/available credit
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  • There's lots of information about what happens if you open a new account, and also if you close an account you've already had. It looks like you combined both of those lists. But I found nothing about starting with X open accounts and Y closed accounts, and ending up with X open accounts and Y+1 closed accounts. Credit utilization doesn't change in this case, as far as I know. Do closed accounts make any difference? Maybe the only difference is the credit inquiry, and that's the only effect on my score?
    – DarkTygur
    Commented Apr 23, 2020 at 1:04
  • Yes. A credit score is a snapshot. Closed accounts do stick around, though (and while they don't affect the score, they still might affect whether or not you will be approved for something like a credit card). The inquiry will be an your account for 2 years
    – xyious
    Commented Apr 23, 2020 at 17:08
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When you close an account you lose the available credit limit on that card and that will affect your utilization rate, which is simply your total card balances divided by the total of your credit limits.

It's simple as that when you close an account, you lose the available credit limit on that particular account. As a result, your existing balances become a higher percentage of your remaining total available credit limits.

Mathematically, this makes the utilization rate go up, which is a sign of credit risk.

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