topic Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid? in Credit Cards

Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2015 15:50:44 GMT

I have an interesting problem. One of my credit cards is much older than the others. It gives me no reward points, cash back etc. -- but still it is way older than my others so naturally I want to avoid it ever being canceled for inactivity. One way to solve that would be to put a recurring charge like my cell phone in it. Presto: I always use it every month and there's almost no chance it will ever get canceled.

The problem is that the recurring charges I have are all pretty high. At least $50/month. So that's $600 a year that would NOT be going on my newer Citibank 2% Cash Back card. Which means I am losing $12 a year by placing a $50/month charge on this old card.

Another possibility would be to make a very small purchase on it every few months. (A burger, a cup of coffee, etc.) So here is my question then:

What's the least amount of use (frequency and dollar value) that would still offer a very reasonable amount of protection against it being canceled?

For example, is a cup of coffee once a year enough? Does it need to be more often? Does the amount of the transaction matter? (The old card is a VISA with a $9500 credit limit. Will the issuer consider canceling if the amount being charged is so tiny that it is less even than the normal minimum payment?)

I realize of course that there are no 100% guarantees in life. I am just curious whether there might be a general minimum standard of use that would make it extremely unlikely for it to be canceled.

Does anybody know the answer? Thanks in advance...

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Ghoshida — Fri, 22 May 2015 15:56:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have an interesting problem. One of my credit cards is much older than the others. It gives me no reward points, cash back etc. -- but still it is way older than my others so naturally I want to avoid it ever being canceled for inactivity. One way to solve that would be to put a recurring charge like my cell phone in it. Presto: I always use it every month and there's almost no chance it will ever get canceled.

The problem is that the recurring charges I have are all pretty high. At least $50/month. So that's $600 a year that would NOT be going on my newer Citibank 2% Cash Back card. Which means I am losing $12 a year by placing a $50/month charge on this old card.

Another possibility would be to make a very small purchase on it every few months. (A burger, a cup of coffee, etc.) So here is my question then:

What's the least amount of use (frequency and dollar value) that would still offer a very reasonable amount of protection against it being canceled?

For example, is a cup of coffee once a year enough? Does it need to be more often? Does the amount of the transaction matter? (The old card is a VISA with a $9500 credit limit. Will the issuer consider canceling if the amount being charged is so tiny that it is less even than the normal minimum payment?)

I realize of course that there are no 100% guarantees in life. I am just curious whether there might be a general minimum standard of use that would make it extremely unlikely for it to be canceled.

Does anybody know the answer? Thanks in advance...

I use my oldest card to buy a soda once every 3 months or so.

A safe bet, though not optimal, is to set that card up for bill pay; say your cable or mobile phone company, for a fixed small payment per month, not the whole bill. Say $5-10. The remaining goes on your best cashback card.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

JSS3 — Fri, 22 May 2015 15:57:04 GMT

Any activity cancels out inactivity.

Buy a stick of gum on the card every 3 months.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2015 15:57:49 GMT

This is a topic near and dear to my heart as well.

Unfortunately I think the anecdotal evidence you're going to hear is going to vary quite a bit from person to person.

I've heard reports of some people buying a pack of gum once a year and being fine.

It also probably depends a lot on the issuer. Amex for example may not ever close a card for inactivity unless there are additional circumstances.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Dw4250 — Fri, 22 May 2015 16:06:53 GMT

Autopay Netflix. 1-2% of $7.99/month is not a huge loss of reward points/cash.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2015 16:09:20 GMT

@Dw4250 wrote:
Autopay Netflix. 1-2% of $7.99/month is not a huge loss of reward points/cash.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

kdm31091 — Fri, 22 May 2015 16:15:26 GMT

This is really not complicated. Either set up a small monthly recurring charge like Netflix (where foregoing the rewards is no big deal) or simply take it to the store and buy a soda or pack of gum or whatever every couple months (again, foregoing rewards on that is no big deal).

Opinions vary as to how often you need to make these purchases to keep a card active. Once a month is definitely safe. Most people say once every 6 months is fine. But please keep in mind that closing old cards does nothing to AAOA. They will fall off 10 years from closure, but by then your newer cards will have aged. It will only impact utilization if you close it, which may or may not be a big deal depending on your other cards. I'm not trying to push you to close it, but if you never see yourself getting any significant use out of it, you may consider closing it. You do not need to keep it forever and put a small charge on it "just because".

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2015 16:15:43 GMT

I have an industrial strength Netflix membership that includes both disk-by-mail and streaming, So my Netflix bill is a lot higher than $7.99. You can assume that I have looked through all my options for recurring charges and that each one is in the universe of $40-$60 per month.

I have been planning to reach out to Netflix and ask them if they will split my bill and bill the streaming and DBM parts to different cards. I think they'll probably say no, but it's on my list of things to try.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Ghoshida — Fri, 22 May 2015 16:17:04 GMT

@Dw4250 wrote:
Autopay Netflix. 1-2% of $7.99/month is not a huge loss of reward points/cash.

I was going to say this but then OP said the min bill was $50; possibly OP doesn't use NetFlix. 1-2% of 7.99 is not much but 100% is; so OP needs to think if they value their oldest card that much

ETA: Saw OP's NetFlix post later; different situation !

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

kdm31091 — Fri, 22 May 2015 16:17:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have an industrial strength Netflix membership that includes both disk-by-mail and streaming, So my Netflix bill is a lot higher than $7.99. You can assume that I have looked through all my options for recurring charges and that each one is in the universe of $40-$60 per month.

I have been planning to reach out to Netflix and ask them if they will split my bill and bill the streaming and DBM parts to different cards. I think they'll probably say no, but it's on my list of things to try.

Then you either forfeit rewards on the $50 bill, or you simply buy something small every month with the card (or every few months).

Or you just close the card. I know not a popular camp on here, but honestly, if you don't need it anymore and will never get use out of it again, you don't need to keep it open unless you have only one or two other cards (utilization).

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Fri, 22 May 2015 16:40:37 GMT

50 cent amazon electronic giftcards spaced 3-6 months apart. You can have scheduled delivery and it'll charge your card 1 business day before that (schedules open 365 days from today)

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Sat, 23 May 2015 00:00:04 GMT

Lots of helpful ideas from everyone. The Amazon giftcard idea is exceptionally clever. It is cheap and allows me to shoebox the card.

I gave Netflix a call to see if they would place my streaming on one card and my disk-by-mail on another. As I suspected the answer was No -- though if I create two separate NF accounts (with two different web portal accounts) it would work.

If I decide to keep the card in my wallet, I can of course just buy something small every few months.

And the remarks about it not being the end of the world if it were to close were sensible too. My concern was not AAoA, however, but the age of my credit profile as a whole. The key here is that this card is substantially older than any other account, so if the card were to close and then fall off in ten years from now, it would cause the age of my profile to drop by five years or so. (The total age, not the AAoA.) Arguably that's still not the end of the world.

Thanks again everyone. If anyone has any definite ideas about how long one can go with no activity before you put yourself at risk of cancellation, don't hesitate to chime in.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

MarineVietVet — Sat, 23 May 2015 00:16:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Lots of helpful ideas from everyone. The Amazon giftcard idea is exceptionally clever. It is cheap and allows me to shoebox the card.

I gave Netflix a call to see if they would place my streaming on one card and my disk-by-mail on another. As I suspected the answer was No -- though if I create two separate NF accounts (with two different web portal accounts) it would work.

If I decide to keep the card in my wallet, I can of course just buy something small every few months.

And the remarks about it not being the end of the world if it were to close were sensible too. My concern was not AAoA, however, but the age of my credit profile as a whole. The key here is that this card is substantially older than any other account, so if the card were to close and then fall off in ten years from now, it would cause the age of my profile to drop by five years or so. (The total age, not the AAoA.) Arguably that's still not the end of the world.

Thanks again everyone. If anyone has any definite ideas about how long one can go with no activity before you put yourself at risk of cancellation, don't hesitate to chime in.

The only two accounts I have let linger for more than a month or so are:

Best Buy MC - 13 months

Care Credit - Right at a year.

But I have no way of knowing if that is standard practice for those particular cards. Perhaps I just got lucky.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Sat, 23 May 2015 00:28:12 GMT

I use each one of my cards every month (with the exception of my NFM card), and while I do try to get the most rewards, it's not the end of the world for me if I don't maximize every penny.

This may shock you guys, but my bank makes me use my debit card 5 times per month in order to get a higher interest rate on a connected savings account. I buy the Sunday paper at work every week and I pick up a half gallon of milk at the gas station once in a while, and that works for me. Even if I used a 2% card for those, I would be losing more money in interest than the cashback I would gain.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Sat, 23 May 2015 00:31:49 GMT

I just cancelled three cards that fell in to this category. What's the point of keeping a card open that you aren't using?

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Sat, 23 May 2015 00:39:44 GMT

Thanks, MVV! Really appreciate that kind of hard evidence... very interesting!

Do you have any idea whether a store card is more likely to be cut extra time before cancellation than a VISA or MC put out by say Chase or Citibank or a similar issuer? Your Best Buy is a true Mastercard, but it's also sponsored by a store, right? (So does that put it in the middle?) I wonder whether a pure store card (Shell, Lowe's, Macy's, JC Penney -- something that can only be used there) has a longer life expectancy (can be inactive without cancellation) than a card that could be used anywhere.

My old card is a Chase VISA. One interesting thing is that I used it very rarely during 2008-2011, like hardly at all. Which means that it somehow survived the massive purge that the big CCC's did of inactive accounts in the years following the economic meltdown (i.e. in 2009 and 2010). How it survived I don't know, but it did.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

Anonymous — Sat, 23 May 2015 00:44:54 GMT

I have one older acct that I have set up to auto pay my netflix billl each month, for like $9. Activity is activity.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

taxi818 — Sat, 23 May 2015 01:10:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks, MVV! Really appreciate that kind of hard evidence... very interesting!

Do you have any idea whether a store card is more likely to be cut extra time before cancellation than a VISA or MC put out by say Chase or Citibank or a similar issuer? Your Best Buy is a true Mastercard, but it's also sponsored by a store, right? (So does that put it in the middle?) I wonder whether a pure store card (Shell, Lowe's, Macy's, JC Penney -- something that can only be used there) has a longer life expectancy (can be inactive without cancellation) than a card that could be used anywhere.

My old card is a Chase VISA. One interesting thing is that I used it very rarely during 2008-2011, like hardly at all. Which means that it somehow survived the massive purge that the big CCC's did of inactive accounts in the years following the economic meltdown (i.e. in 2009 and 2010). How it survived I don't know, but it did.

Many Store cards can go years and years without being closed. My mother has 2 like that. A 46 year old sears card. no use in 16 years. still open. and a18 year old macy's card. no use in about 4 years. it just all depends. im curious about the Best Buy master card too. i don't want to close it. but since citi is so hp happy. i just cant use it except xmas time.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

barbaralee — Sat, 23 May 2015 01:29:06 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I just cancelled three cards that fell in to this category. What's the point of keeping a card open that you aren't using?

Yeah, I agree. I am one of those who will neither go out of my way to cancel, or look for a miniscule transaction to run through the card. Hubby still has his Capital One card from when he was 18 years old, sitting at $500. He has not used that card in over 6 years for a single purchase and they still haven't cancelled it, lol.

Re: Canceled for Inactivity -- cheapest way to avoid?

MarineVietVet — Sat, 23 May 2015 01:36:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks, MVV! Really appreciate that kind of hard evidence... very interesting!

Do you have any idea whether a store card is more likely to be cut extra time before cancellation than a VISA or MC put out by say Chase or Citibank or a similar issuer? Your Best Buy is a true Mastercard, but it's also sponsored by a store, right? (So does that put it in the middle?) I wonder whether a pure store card (Shell, Lowe's, Macy's, JC Penney -- something that can only be used there) has a longer life expectancy (can be inactive without cancellation) than a card that could be used anywhere.

My old card is a Chase VISA. One interesting thing is that I used it very rarely during 2008-2011, like hardly at all. Which means that it somehow survived the massive purge that the big CCC's did of inactive accounts in the years following the economic meltdown (i.e. in 2009 and 2010). How it survived I don't know, but it did.

I'm sorry but I have no answers for you. I'm not sure if store cards have more leeway before they are closed for non use.

I've never thought about whether the BB MC could be used anywhere else. My first guess would be no but I'm not certain.