topic Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity? in Credit Cards

how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 00:23:39 GMT

Hello all. Reactivating this thread! (Jan 28, 2016) Always curious to hear whether any new readers of the thread can give us any case studies of a card that was cancelled.

Summary thus far:

* All reports of a card being cancelled involved the card being unused for at least 11 months. (Exception: if the card was never used even once, then we had one case study of it being cancelled at 8 months and another at 12 months.)

* Store cards appear to be able to go for far longer without being cancelled. The earliest cases of store cards being cancelled (if they were used at least once) is 4 years. Several cases of store cards being open (and are still open) for very long periods of nonuse -- many many years.

* Several people having major cards still open (and no closure in sight) at 15+ months and a few cases of 4+ years.

* Credit Line Decrease: one person (our very own Thom Thumb) reports a major CC experiencing a CLD at 11 months of non-use.

VERY interested in hearing cases that involve any credit card being closed or experiencing a CLD at 13 months of inactivity or less!

The purpose of this thread is to collect some hard (if anecdotal) evidence about how long a credit card can be unused before if is cancelled by the issuer for inactivity. What I am looking for is therefore two things:

(1) People who have had a card cancelled for inactivity (but otherwise in good standing) and they can tell us some information about it. Info I am looking for:

* Was it a store card (Chevron, Macy's, etc.) or a major credit card (Chase Visa, Citi Mastercard, Amex, etc.)?

* What year was it cancelled? (Many cards were cancelled in 2008-2010, after the economic meltdown, and thus that may be less significant than a card cancelled before or after that.)

* How many months of inactivity had gone by before it was cancelled? (Best guess. This is the most important question.)

* When it was cancelled, had it ever been used? (For example, it was opened, activated, used for a few months and then cancelled for inactivity after ____ months of nonuse.) Or was it NEVER used?

If you are not the person who owned the card, but you know of such a person (and can answer most of the above questions) that is also fine.

(2) People who have had cards that they know are still open (verified on the credit report) but they also know have been unused for a long time (15 months or more). Be sure to indicate whether it is a store card or a major credit card, since unused store cards may be able to stay open for far longer). As above, an approximate number of months that the card has been unused is essential -- it can be a best guess.)

What I am not looking for on this thread is general advice on how to prevent cards from being closed: e.g. "charge something small on it every 2 months." Yup, that would work, but I am looking more for concrete evidence about how long a protracted period could go on. rather than general CYA advice. Hopefully if we could assemble some definite data we can use that to tweak the general advice, but one needs the data first.

Thanks in advance...!

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

AKO17 — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 19:42:03 GMT

Old Navy - This card was used once on date opened. PIF ASAP and never used again.

Account Type: Credit Card

Terms: Revolving

Date Opened: 04/01/2002

Account Status: Closed due to inactivity

Payment Status: Paid

Payment Status Details: Paid satisfactorily

Status Updated: 08/01/2012

Target - I never once used this card.

Account Type: Credit Card

Terms: Revolving

Date Opened: 07/01/2004

Account Status: Closed due to inactivity

Payment Status: Paid

Payment Status Details: Paid satisfactorily

Status Updated: 07/01/2009

Capital One - Has not been used in probably 5-8 years years.

Account Type: Credit Card

Terms: Revolving

Date Opened: 03/01/1995

Account Status: Open

Payment Status: Paid

Payment Status Details: Current

Status Updated: 10/01/2015

Hope this helps.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

DantGwyrdd — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 19:45:15 GMT

Good idea for a topic! So let me help start it off, my experience would fall under (2) I guess.

Card: Synchrony/Amazon Store Card

Opened: 02/2012

Time unused: approximately 15 months

Result: credit line reduced by about half (in 08/2015), but not closed

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 20:08:06 GMT

Thanks, AKO17! Very helpful. For the two closed accounts, may we confidently infer that the date closed was roughly the same as the "Status Updated"? (That month or possibly the month before?)

I have heard of inactive store cards that stay open for year and years, but it is interesting that you have a major credit card (Cap One) that has remained open for at least 5 years possibly as many as 8.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Thomas_Thumb — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 18:28:59 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks, AKO17! Very helpful. For the two closed accounts, may we confidently infer that the date closed was roughly the same as the "Status Updated"? (That month or possibly the month before?)

I have heard of inactive store cards that stay open for year and years, but it is interesting that you have a major credit card (Cap One) that has remained open for at least 5 years possibly as many as 8.

I opened a Kohls card years ago to get some hefty discounts. Here are the details from an old TU credit report:

Account opened: 11/2008

Last payment: 12/2008

Closed: 3/2013 (due to inactivity) - 52 months between last use and closure due to inactivity

Credit limit: $1500

High credit: $266

The same report shows the following for my FIA Signature Visa card:

1) Balance reported on 2/2010

2) Next balance reported on 1/2011

3) Next balance reported on 7/2011

I was in error earlier (faulty memory). During the 1.5 year time span I actually did use the card once. Longest time frame I can confirm for non use on a major credit card is 11 months based on the TU report. Note: CL on card reduced by $7k following this span of limited use which prompted me to use all open CCs more often.

Now I use all my remaining 6 cards on a regular basis.

Note: As general practice I advice using cards at a minimum frequency of once per 12 months to avoid risk of closure [perhaps once every 6 months to minimize risk of a reduced credit limit] on major CCs.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 21:46:07 GMT

I will contribute one case-study on behalf of a fellow who posted about this 3-4 months ago. He mentioned that he did have a major credit card closed after eight months of non-use. But I asked him if he had had ever used it, and the answer was no: he opened it and shoeboxed it and then got a message eight months later saying it had been cancelled. So it may be that the risk of closure is very low for any major card used at least once if the period of non-use is 13 months or less.

I hope we get a lot more examples volunteered by others, however.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

JagerBombs89 — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 01:11:32 GMT

According to my credit reports, I haven't used one of my accounts since March 2010 (67 months of inactivity) and it is still being reported as Open. Pretty crazy!

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 02:44:54 GMT

Thanks JB! Is this a store card or a major credit card?

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

iv — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 04:05:46 GMT

Raymour & Flanigan furniture store card (backed by Wells Fargo, might have been a Visa, don't remember) - opened for 20% discount on large purchase, paid off after first statement, and then left untouched:

Opened: Dec 6 2009

Last (only) payment: Feb 16 2010

Closed for inactivity: Sep 13 2011

So, 19 months from last activity.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 05:30:00 GMT

I don't know if a Canadian data point is relevent, but I have a major bank Visa card I haven't used in probably 15 years, and it's still active. I recently got a replacement card in the mail, as the old one expired. I don't think I even activated the one that had expired.

I have another card which eventually was suspended, and they mailed me a letter telling me so, after around 10 years of inactivity. I called and the bank reactivated it for me, asking if I would use it. I said yes, but I haven't used it, and it's been two years since and it's still active.

Really I have no idea if this translates to the US market, but my suspicion is that they will basically NEVER deactivate a card unless there's something dodgy on your credit record and they're looking for an excuse to close it. But if you have solid credit with no problems my guess is that they can remain open forever.

However, that is based on my Canadian experience. I've only been in the US a year, and have used all my cards at least once in that time

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 05:36:27 GMT

Well one caveat to the above -- they are both big banks of the "we want all your banking" variety, like I suppose BoA/CITI/Chase/Wells Fargo, etc, where they would love it if you give them your banking, retirement account, credit cards, insurance, etc., and so maybe these big banks keep open my credit cards forever hoping that I'll one day get additional products with them. I once upon a time banked with all of them once upon a time but my accounts are all long since closed or dormant since I moved my regular banking elsewhere (to credit unions and online banking companies).

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 10:49:55 GMT

I have a card with Sterling Jewelers (Kay/Jared/Belden etc.) which I last paid off about 2 years ago. It's still open and earlier this year they auto-bumped my CL from 4k to $6,400!
I'm not sure how much longer they will keep it open. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Sterling Jewelers
Opened: Dec 2012
Last Pay: Oct 2013
Still open.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

takeshi74 — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 12:23:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What I am not looking for on this thread is general advice on how to prevent cards from being closed: e.g. "charge something small on it every 2 months." Yup, that would work, but I am looking more for concrete evidence about how long a protracted period could go on. rather than general CYA advice. Hopefully if we could assemble some definite data we can use that to tweak the general advice, but one needs the data first.

Good luck with it but policies on closure due to inactivity can and do vary by creditor and everyone does not use the same set of creditors. If one wants to verify then one should verify directly with each creditor rather than relying on the hope that one broad generalization will apply in all cases. If one does want to generalize then one will need to use the creditor with the shortest timeframe for closure due to inactivity of the creditors that one uses.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

AKO17 — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 14:36:19 GMT

Yes, interesting regarding my Cap One but I'm fine with it as it gives me a 20 year history As for the store cards, yes, I'd say the close date was around the same time as the last status update.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

JagerBombs89 — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 04:02:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks JB! Is this a store card or a major credit card?

It is a store card for a jewelry company. And while my payment history is blank and my "last reported" is 2010, I don't want to contact them and realize they need to close my account I'll keep milking that account for AAoA since my 10 year drop off date hasn't started yet!

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

eddie84 — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 07:00:17 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have a card with Sterling Jewelers (Kay/Jared/Belden etc.) which I last paid off about 2 years ago. It's still open and earlier this year they auto-bumped my CL from 4k to $6,400!
I'm not sure how much longer they will keep it open. Does anyone have any experience with them?

I'd like to know this also since I just paid off the Jared card and have no plan to use it again anytime soon.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 16:47:52 GMT

YupYup and Eddie raise a really interesting point: how does somebody insure that a store card stays open when he doesn't want anything at the store and what they do sell is damn expensive?

I know almost nothing about jewelers, but do any of them sell anything analogous to a pack of gum? (Not literally that of course.)

My guess is that a jeweler will keep an inactive card of a proven customer open for a very long time, longer than even a lot of the other store cards we've heard about thus far. (I welcome of course anyone who knows specifics.) The reason of course is that the business model of a jeweler expects that a customer might go for long periods without making another purchase -- very different from (say) Target where a typical customer uses the card several times a year (or more).

From a practical perspective, however, I'd say that YY and Eddie would probably be OK even if the card was cancelled at some point. The real reason to worry about a premature cancellation of a store card you never use is if it is (a) your oldest card and (b) many years older than all your other cards. Even then its cancellation would have no impact on you for ten years, at which point all the cards you have now would be much older.

Curiously (and I am now moving off the main topic of this thread) there may be a silver lining to having a store card cancelled. This is because some industries pull your credit reports and give you a lower rating because of the presence of, among other things, store cards -- the insurance industry is an example. So there may be an actual advantage for the credit cards in your profile to be chiefly (or almost entirely) major CCs rather than store cards. Obviously the exception would be a store card that really gives you a huge benefit over any major CC.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Tomgon1981 — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 02:26:45 GMT

I opened ashley furniture card with sync may of 2014 in hopes of taking advantage of memorial day Sale didn't receive limit I want they never budged on any cli so card closed 12 months later due to never getting used

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 13:14:54 GMT

I'd bet jewelry stores would sell jewelry cleaner or some doo-dad for <$10. Not quite a pack of gum, but better than a tennis bracelet to keep it for util/AAoA.

I'm carrying around my Living Spaces card hoping I can go in and find a lamp or pillow when I'm near one, just to keep it open. DH may or may not have a mattress store card account still open. That one, I won't worry about since I'm sure we won't return.

My closures have all been store cards. Macy's, Talbots, and most of the rest would be stores that are out of business long ago.

Re: how long before a card is cancelled for inactivity?

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 00:31:39 GMT

Just updated this thread with a summary in the first post. I hope to hear some more hard cases if there are any new readers.