With all due respect to WolfMan (and many others on these forums), I am going to advise against using "no AF" as sole criteria to keep a credit card open. Here are just a few reasons why not to simply "sock drawer" a card:
1. Inactive accounts risk being "closed by creditor" which doesn't look great on manual review
2. Lots of unused credit cards may lower UTL, but also risk "you have too much credit" denials when seeking CLI or new credit
3. Creates risk of unauthorized use thru misplacing, losing or other disorganization (eventually you may forget about 1 of them, etc)
You should choose your actions and cards carefully. Examine your usage habits (again) and create 3 "piles": the will definitely keep pile; the may keep pile; the definetly close pile.
If you know you aren't likely to use a card more than once or twice a year add it to the "may close" pile; AF cards toss in "def close" since you want to eliminate AF, etc.
Keep in mind: looks better to have a consumer close an account than the lender; closing accounts won't destroy your AAOA -- they'll still report for 10 years from date of closing; UTl management should be more than just getting CLI to mask spending beyond means (if you are spending within means you can consistently stay within good utilizatin range whether your total credit is $500, $5000 or $50,000).
Too many people get hung up on keeping unused credit open for AAOA purposes, yet forget that if rebuilding strategically in 10 years when those closed accounts fall off you should have all the prime accounts you wanted & thus AAOA becomes moot. You can read many posts of people discouraged because lenders said no because of too much (or enough) credit. Think about it: would you want to lend Peter money when you see he already borrowed from Paul and a dozen other people?
You just got a new Chase card. Pick maybe 3 others max to use at least semi-concurrently & ax the rest. Then garden for 6 months before you strategically app for your next card.
1. Inactive accounts risk being "closed by creditor" which doesn't look great on manual review
2. Lots of unused credit cards may lower UTL, but also risk "you have too much credit" denials when seeking CLI or new credit
3. Creates risk of unauthorized use thru misplacing, losing or other disorganization (eventually you may forget about 1 of them, etc)
You should choose your actions and cards carefully. Examine your usage habits (again) and create 3 "piles": the will definitely keep pile; the may keep pile; the definetly close pile.
If you know you aren't likely to use a card more than once or twice a year add it to the "may close" pile; AF cards toss in "def close" since you want to eliminate AF, etc.
Keep in mind: looks better to have a consumer close an account than the lender; closing accounts won't destroy your AAOA -- they'll still report for 10 years from date of closing; UTl management should be more than just getting CLI to mask spending beyond means (if you are spending within means you can consistently stay within good utilizatin range whether your total credit is $500, $5000 or $50,000).
Too many people get hung up on keeping unused credit open for AAOA purposes, yet forget that if rebuilding strategically in 10 years when those closed accounts fall off you should have all the prime accounts you wanted & thus AAOA becomes moot. You can read many posts of people discouraged because lenders said no because of too much (or enough) credit. Think about it: would you want to lend Peter money when you see he already borrowed from Paul and a dozen other people?
You just got a new Chase card. Pick maybe 3 others max to use at least semi-concurrently & ax the rest. Then garden for 6 months before you strategically app for your next card.
