@Gill7O2 wrote:
In the past, one of the advises I got was not to close accounts I no longer want but to simply pay them off and wait till they get closed due to inactivity.
My question is 2 fold:
1. Does it really happen and if so, how long does it take before companies close cards due to inactivity?
2. I have a couple of cards with annual/monthly fees. Those, obviously, always carry balance and even if I pay it off, next month it will have a balance due to the fees again. Do those ever die?
My goal is to pay them off and get them closed. What would be the most effective method?
They will often close due to inactivity within roughly 2 years though policies differ by issuer. Some do it much sooner, others later. They will all eventually close. But really, there's not much advantage to sitting around waiting for them to close if you want them closed. You can call and close them. As long as you have other cards you are using and the closures won't make a huge impact on your available credit overall, there is no reason to fear closing them.
What cards have a monthly fee? But it's the same thing...pay it off, call and close it. If it truly has a monthly fee, you're never going to have a zero balance on your statement so I don't know if the inactivity thing would work the same way.
Once they are closed, they stick around on your credit report for 10 years.
You can save yourself a lot of worry about it by simply calling and closing the cards you don't want anymore instead of waiting for the issuer to do so. 100% effective.
