Best way to avoid Account Closure.

[Loquat]

Amazon reloads seems to be the easiest way for me to keep activity on cards that I don't use that often. Simple and I don't have to leave home with a bunch of different cards to do it.

[MyFault]

On my no AF cards, I set a calendar reminder to amazon reload $1-2 dollars on them every 6 months.

[Anonymous]

And just as a reminder whenever this comes up, for some (probably small) amount of people on some cards, usage itself is not enough to prevent at least a CLD.   A while back, Cap One was looking for "significant" usage to avoid large CLDs (mine went from $35K to $10K) even though I had put about $50 a year on the card

[Horseshoez]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I recently learned that Credit card companies can close accounts due to lack of use. 

I have two Capital One cards that I've recently paid off and plan to never use again, however I also don't want them to be closed because having a lot of open accounts is a good thing.

What's a good way to avoid this for those who have sock-drawered their cards?

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I would argue having lots of open accounts is neither a good thing or a bad thing; what makes you think it is good?

FWIW, I've run across anecdotal reports here and on other credit web sites where folks have been denied new credit simply because they have too many open accounts.

[Loquat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

And just as a reminder whenever this comes up, for some (probably small) amount of people on some cards, usage itself is not enough to prevent at least a CLD.   A while back, Cap One was looking for "significant" usage to avoid large CLDs (mine went from $35K to $10K) even though I had put about $50 a year on the card

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This is true.  I'm thankful I was able to escape the cuts that CapOne made.  My $44.5k is still intact and my card still doesn't see more than $100 in swipes throughout the year.  This is a reminder that I may want to actually put some decent use on it as I hope that CapOne continues to add more partners and then make transfers a 1:1 ratio.  

[totallymytravis]

@Horseshoez curious what does AZEO mean in your signature?

[Horseshoez]

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@totallymytravis wrote:

@Horseshoez curious what does AZEO mean in your signature?

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A very common acronym around here; it means "All Zero Except One", in other words, pay all of your cards down to zero prior to statement cut date, except one, and let the one report a small trivial balance of say, $25.00.

To my way of thinking, it takes way too much fussing to micromanage my accounts to such a level, so I pay them in full prior to every due date and then whatever happens to clear between the payment post date date and the statement date is what gets reported.  In theory this could mean I report "All Zero" (aka. "AZ", hasn't happened yet), AZEO (has happened a few times), or AZET (All Zero Except Two or Three, which happens most months).

Once again, in theory, AZEO will generate maximum FICO bonus points, but I have yet to see any benefit between AZEO and AZET.  Regarding the "AZ" reporting, this scenario does cause a reduction in FICO scores to some degree, so I agree, avoid AZ.