No way to know except to pull a report.
In theory if the account has never been closed, and just not utilized, it'll probably come back with the full tradeline but a bunch of "No Data's" (which are completely irrelevant). I would get the report, and once the tradeline is reporting, then go and apply for whatever credit card he needs. Should still show 5 years of account history with some inactivity in the middle; however, that won't be much, if any, problem... should still be a bunch of OK's for payment history regardless.
Re the foreign card: I doubt that'll ever show up on a US CRA's report; however, I would *definitely* use that if you need to recon for whatever reason to explain the inactivity, hopefully others with similar experiences can offer more advice on that front to see if there's any good method of handling that.
@Kyva wrote:Hi,
My father has a secured HSBC card with CL $1500 (surprisingly that secured HSBC card has a reward program with no AF. He has a HSBC card with ~10k USD CL in other country, wonder if it does anything.). The account was opened roughly 5 years back, but the card had stopped reporting (but still open) since 02/2011 because my father had stopped using it for a while back then.
My father started using the card again and is looking for another one for credit building because we're planning to buy a house in few years. The HSBC credit card is the only account he has, and that there's no any late payment, derogatory remark. I wonder if this is seen as thin credit file because no activity had been reported for roughly an year? Should I apply a chase freedom card for him right away or wait for another 6 months reporting from HSBC?
Thank you!
I would have him call HSBC and have them send a manual update to the CRA's.
