Maintaining a positive consumer credit history has become a key part of good personal finances, but few schools offer a comprehensive education on how to establish and build good credit. As a result, there is a lot of confusion around what can impact credit scores. In the case of credit cards with 0% APR offers, the answer is a little complicated. Technically, the new cardholder offer that allows you to pay no interest on your purchases or balance transfers won’t impact your credit by itself. It’s just like the signup bonus or the annual fee — it has no direct impact on your credit. That being said, if you open a new credit card account (with or without an intro-APR offer), that action can impact your credit in a few ways, starting with the application. Each time you apply for new credit, the card issuer will check your credit profile to determine your credit risk. This results in a hard credit inquiry on your credit report. One or two hard credit inquiries at any given time won’t have much impact on your credit scores. However, multiple hard inquiries in a short period of time can cause your credit score to noticeably decrease, as lenders and scoring algorithms consider it a sign that you may be trying to take on debt.