topic Re: How often do I have to use my card? in Credit Cards

How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 02:57:00 GMT

I have a student card (my oldest) with about just over 2 years old, but I also have other cards now so i wont be using it anymore (CITI TY PREFER STUDENT CARD). How often do I have to use it to keep it "active"? Also is it possible to somehow redeem my current 14k points to redeem it for google play (android)? They don't have the giftcards for that, only itunes on THANKYOU.COM ... Thanks

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 02:59:14 GMT

I don't think there's a hard time but it's usually pretty long before they close it. My buddy has a Capital One that he hasn't used in like 6 years that's still active. My BOFA hasn't been used since 3/2015 and it's still active.

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 03:46:49 GMT

Once every 6 months would definitely be enough to be super safe. Once every year if you're not so neurotic. The hard part is to remember to do so

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 05:04:12 GMT

Does the financial institution generally send out an email/letter warning/informing the customer that their card will be shut down in X amount of days if they don't use it?

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

OnTheRebound — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 05:41:26 GMT

I just received a letter from Comenity Bank informing me that I haven't used my Total Reward Visa in over 15 months and if I don't use it at least once within 90 days from the date of the letter they will close it without further notice.

Also, I believe my CITI Diamond Preferred hasn't seen any activity in well over 2 years. So far I haven't heard anything about that. Just depends on the lender.

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 06:01:18 GMT

Thanks OnTheRebound.. I'd figure it's the most common courtesy they can do.. give us a headsup!

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 07:10:00 GMT

My boyfriends Macy's card was also no activity for 18 months it impacted his score by over 35pts with each union :c so I was also worried but not sure how long they would actually give me, thanks for info though!

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 11:13:36 GMT

How would not using the Macy's card for 18 months impact the score over 35 pts?

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

takeshi74 — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 12:46:09 GMT

Confirm directly with each of your creditors what their policies are on closure due to inactivity. They are not all the same.

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 16:40:52 GMT

Yeah it was weird we later received a letter saying no payments in last 18 months but there wasn't a balance either, we later used it and the pts went back up after 2 months

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 17:07:38 GMT

That doesn't sound right. Something else must've been going on to impact the score by 35 points. Very unlikely it was the lack of usage, that is not factored into scoring at all

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 17:29:38 GMT

That was the only explanation he got & since it went back up after he used it I didn't think to doubt it

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2016 18:16:32 GMT

From where? The credit bureaus or the card company? If the latter then that doesn't mean it was the reason for the score decrease. Usage does not factor into credit scores.

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 01:48:05 GMT

It was from trans&equi

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 13:35:45 GMT

No offense but Macy's nor any other ONE vendor controls the overall scoring model to such, degree period.

Something else was going on that may just have coincided with this activity.

The post seems to indicate the letter came from a CRA, which obviously isn't the case, so there must be a communication gap somewhere.

Using a Macys card for a month can't be the sole reason for a 35 point shift either way no matter

There are many moving parts to scoring daily anyway it's said that a large % on files shift scores by on average 20 points fr month to month anyway, we humans love to feel we have most things figured out but there are lots of variables

Was his address reaffirmed, thus getting back some I.d. points
Did his file hit an Aging threshold or did a particular card
All sorts of nonsense going on almost invisible to what we 'see'
When ppl say the ONLY thing that changed is....
Off the bat, we have no idea if that's true from a profile POV....just the fact that the profile is a month older is already a change, there are always changes.

We all use the terms lost points and gained points which in and of itself it's wrong because Everytime a score is pulled it's calculated at that moment there is no memory....we just happen to compare our last score with the latest but technically there is no lost or gained, just compared to the last time.

Re: How often do I have to use my card?

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2016 14:29:59 GMT

It was 18 months of no billing activity/ payment history