Since credit cards are at the core of travel hacking, having a good credit score will help you get approved for the best credit cards. Thus, travel hackers take their credit score very seriously. You’ll see people talking about soft pulls and hard pulls. You’ll also see people talking about ways to maintain and improve their credit score. These type of topics are common because a good credit score is so important.
When you apply for a credit card, the company will do a “hard pull” (aka hard inquiry) which means that will pull your credit report to assess your credit risk. A hard pull will stay on your credit report for two years but should only negatively impact your credit score for a short period of time. Several hard pulls in a short period of time can compound causing your score to drop a lot more. As a result, this could lead to denials. Different credit cards require higher credit scores and travel hackers do not want to be denied any credit cards.
If you do get approved for a new credit card it will reduce the average age of your accounts. Travel hackers want to open as many cards as possible but if they don’t do it right, they’ll have a very short average age of accounts. This will lower credit score and lead to denials. See a pattern here?
The better your credit score is, the higher your credit limits will be. Although travel hackers will usually always pay balances in full to avoid interest, there are times when you can put a large amount of purchases (or one large purchase) in a short period of time on your card. For example, some people spending tens of thousands of dollars on a home remodeling project may want to put everything on a credit card to get the points. If you have a low credit score, you’re not going to get a high enough credit limit to do that.
So while it is possible to start travel hacking without a great credit score, you’ll likely be limited in what you can do. However, you can learn how to build up your credit score over time so that you can take full advantage of everything travel hacking has to offer.