What happens when you leave cards completely inactive?

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, so I have 3 cards. (CSP, AMEX Gold, Amex BCE) and I've left my Amex cards completely inactive (no balance) for one month. Will this hurt my score or my relationship with Amex in anyway?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey guys, so I have 3 cards. (CSP, AMEX Gold, Amex BCE) and I've left my Amex cards completely inactive (no balance) for one month. Will this hurt my score or my relationship with Amex in anyway?

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A month won't change anything as that's not unusual.  If you leave a card inactive (no use whatsoever) for 6+ months, then  you run the risk of account closure or a CLD.  Some cards you can leave inactive for much longer but I wouldn't risk it if you want to keep the card.

[myjourney]

+1 and I can't remember who but someone has it in their T/C after 6 months of inactivity account could risk closing.....

A month or two tho.....don't sweat the small stuff

[Anonymous]

Normally a month or three won't hurt anything. Most of my cards are in the SD and are rotated quarterly. The only CLD I've had is a Shell card that was reduced from 800 to 300, but I don't care about trivial things like that.

[Anonymous]

I just found a card that I first obtained in 2007. Last activity was 2012 and the card was a replacement (due to expiration date) sent to me 1-2 years ago. It still had not been activated. I went online and activated the new card and the tradeline is still active. I was shocked. I have several cards with no activity for a few years and have not seen any closure. but these are with the big banks and not store cards.

[taxi818]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hey guys, so I have 3 cards. (CSP, AMEX Gold, Amex BCE) and I've left my Amex cards completely inactive (no balance) for one month. Will this hurt my score or my relationship with Amex in anyway?

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A month won't change anything as that's not unusual.  If you leave a card inactive (no use whatsoever) for 6+ months, then  you run the risk of account closure or a CLD.  Some cards you can leave inactive for much longer but I wouldn't risk it if you want to keep the card.

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Good thing. as i have a Home Depot that is 10 months old and i have never used it. I guess it is time to buy some batteries or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the responses guys! What happens if I charge a few bucks on the cards, but adjust the balance to $0 before the end of the statement period. That way they are actively used, but still report as 0% utilization. Would that work?

[myjourney]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the responses guys! What happens if I charge a few bucks on the cards, but adjust the balance to $0 before the end of the statement period. That way they are actively used, but still report as 0% utilization. Would that work?

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Works for me 

It's called the bubble gum card 

[Gmood1]

Shouldn't be a big deal either way. I just had one of my cards report a $1.00. Lol
I only had a $1 charged on it before statement cut. And was too lazy to go in and pay it. I noticed today they actually reported it. Ha ha

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the responses guys! What happens if I charge a few bucks on the cards, but adjust the balance to $0 before the end of the statement period. That way they are actively used, but still report as 0% utilization. Would that work?

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Lots of people do things like this. The ideal credit scoring solution involves doing this for all but one card, with that card having 2-3% utilization. However, many of us have discovered that the difference in scoring from doing this vs. letting the cards report is minimal.