sock drawer - how often need to use the card?

[Anonymous]

If I am sock drawering one of my useless cards, how often should i use it (or how little can i use it) to keep the cc open? 

I wouldnt mind it falling off but its one of older cards.. actually i think it is my oldest card now. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I am sock drawering one of my useless cards, how often should i use it (or how little can i use it) to keep the cc open? 

I wouldnt mind it falling off but its one of older cards.. actually i think it is my oldest card now. 

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Small charge once every 3 months will work

[kdm31091]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I am sock drawering one of my useless cards, how often should i use it (or how little can i use it) to keep the cc open? 

I wouldnt mind it falling off but its one of older cards.. actually i think it is my oldest card now. 

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Keep in mind that it being closed (for inactivity or if you close it yourself) won't hurt your AAOA. It will only hurt it in 10 years when it falls off, at which point you will certainly have other aged accounts.

I'm pretty much usually in the camp of "close if it is no longer useful" with a couple exceptions (it's your only card or one of two; your utilization would skyrocket, etc).

You can probably just close it if it no longer benefits you.

[SunriseEarth]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I am sock drawering one of my useless cards, how often should i use it (or how little can i use it) to keep the cc open? 

I wouldnt mind it falling off but its one of older cards.. actually i think it is my oldest card now. 

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Small charge once every 3 months will work

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OP could probably go 6 months or even longer for some lenders.   I haven't used my Merrick CC for over a year and it's still alive.   I'll probably close it on my own sometime soon, however, since it's the last of my "rebuilder" cards.   

[Anonymous]

once every 3 months like mentioned above! gl 

[Anonymous]

I actually had a conversation about this with a supervisor at Bank of America (we were quite frank about the fact that I am SDing the card, and she didn't seem to mind :-)) when I had an issue on my card. She said "use the card at least once a year to avoid getting cancelled". So, YMMV for other lenders, and 3 months is certainly a good fail-safe, but less frequently than that probably won't hurt... at least for BofA.

[Blackbeauty212]

My Chase/Amtrak has been cut up and most of the CL has been reallocated to my other chase cards. It's been well over a year since I've used it for anything. Yet the account is still ticking. I will let Chase Close it when they're ready, the CL isn't but 500$

[IFtkkdx428]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If I am sock drawering one of my useless cards, how often should i use it (or how little can i use it) to keep the cc open? 

I wouldnt mind it falling off but its one of older cards.. actually i think it is my oldest card now. 

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I'm going to think outside the box here. I see in your signature that you have two cards in the sock drawer. One being the Union Plus. It looks like Union Plus has a few different products, one being the Cash Rewards card that has 1.5% cash back. Is this what you have? If not, can you PC to this product? Your CC portfolio seems like mostly travel rewards, which I'm not familiar with (I focus on cash back rewards). However, if the 1.5% cash back is better than travel rewards, would it still be wroth keeping? If not, I see that only one of their cards have an AF which is the Credit Access. I know everyone has different opinions on weather to keep CCs open or close them, however if you can keep it open than I believe that would be best. If the card doesn't have an AF, I believe it should be kept open. If you are worried you might forget to charge something to the card, then put a recurring charge on it for example Netflix, Hulu, insurance, light bill, etc. If you can remember, buy something on iTunes or Amazon for $.99. Now, finally to your question. How long can you use it before the lender closes it? Well, Union Plus is co-branded by Capital One. I don't know how long you can go before Capital One closes it. Maybe another member knows how often Capital One likes to see activity?

The other card I in your signature that's in the sock drawer is GM Buy Power by Capital One? I think your Union Plus Cash Rewards has potential to be used, however the GM Buy Power is unless. This card also doesn't have an AF, so I believe it would be best if you could keep it active. Just my opinion. Since these are both co-branded cards by Capital One, hopefully another member will chime in to share what kind of activity Capital One likes to see to keep the account open. I'm not trying to keep you from letting a lender close your card, but since it's your oldest card than I believe it's worth holding on to if possible.  

[TURNERHOOVER]

My SD card gets used once every other month. 

[steel_string]

It's going to depend heavily on the issuer. I used my Chase Slate last month for the first time since August 2012. There was a thread not long ago from someone whose AmEx was closed for five years of inactivity. At the other extreme, there was a thread not long ago about a card that was closed after a little over six months (afraid I don't recall the issuer). You just have to use them all fairly frequently or be aware of what individual lenders have done with other users.