Here’s What Happens When You Open Multiple Bank Accounts at the Same Time

This post may contain affiliate links which may compensate us based on your interaction. Please read the disclosures for more information.

You may want to open an account at more than one bank. Read on to see if that might impact your credit score. 

Credit card companies are constantly trying to lure in consumers with great sign-up bonuses. Because of this, it’s common to apply for multiple credit cards at the same time. If there’s a travel rewards card offering 50,000 bonus miles and a cash back card offering a $250 payday for meeting a certain spending threshold, those are offers you might want to pursue simultaneously.

The problem with opening multiple credit cards at once is that it has the potential to hurt your credit score. But you can rest assured that if you want to open multiple bank accounts, your credit score should not be impacted.

When you want to put your money in different places

It may be that one bank is offering a bonus for opening a checking account and a separate bank has a really great interest rate on savings accounts. In a situation like that, it could make sense to open two accounts at separate institutions at the same time. But you don’t have to worry about credit score damage.

Whenever you apply for a new loan or credit card, a hard inquiry is done on your credit report. That can result in a five to 10-point drop in your credit score each time. In fact, new credit accounts make up 10% of your credit score. And opening too many of them at once can be harmful.

But when you apply for a bank account, it results in a soft inquiry on your credit report, not a hard inquiry. A soft inquiry should not cause your credit score to drop at all.

Think about it. When you apply for a loan or credit card, you’re asking to borrow money in some shape or form. When you open a bank account, you’re not asking to be given money to borrow. Rather, you’re saying that you have money that you want to put somewhere safe.

As such, what banks really need to do when you open an account is verify your identity more so than confirm that you can be trusted to borrow. So that’s why opening a bank account won’t have a negative impact on your credit score.

It’s good to know what goes into your credit score

Opening a bank account won’t impact your credit score, and neither will the amount of money you have in your account. It’s not as if having a higher balance will result in a boosted score while having less money will cause your score to shrink.

On the other hand, being timely with bills (or not) will impact your credit score, as will using up too much of your credit limit at once. And having long-standing credit accounts can be a good thing for your score, as it shows consistency.

Now for the most part, it generally doesn’t make sense to go off and open numerous bank accounts at the same time. But rest assured that if you decide you want to open two different ones within days of each other, or even on the same day, it shouldn’t be a problem.

These savings accounts are FDIC insured and could earn you 12x your bank

Many people are missing out on guaranteed returns as their money languishes in a big bank savings account earning next to no interest. Our picks of the best online savings accounts can earn you 12x the national average savings account rate. Click here to uncover the best-in-class picks that landed a spot on our shortlist of the best savings accounts for 2023.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

 Read More