I've read enough around here to know that if I pay off my balance for a credit card, I shouldn't close it. This should help my utilization or something like that.
But I still have a few questions:
- How long does it take for cards to go inactive from disuse? Once this happens, can I expect a drop in score as if I had closed them now?
- Assuming I could keep all of my paid off cards active by using them once a year or something, how many cards is too much? If I've already been docked the points in the past for inquiries, is there any further penalty to having too many open cards?
FICO (06/17/08): TU 691 - EQ 642 - EX 638 - Util 64%
FICO (07/23/08): TU 698 - EQ 653 - EX 644 - Util 50%
FICO (02/04/09): TU 694 - EQ 668 - EX 654 - Util 43%
FICO (05/18/09): TU 687 - EQ 675 - EX n/a - Util 39%
FICO (03/09/10): TU 666 - EQ: 691 - EX 644 - Util 54%
IDGuard (2/8/12): TU 690 - EQ: 710 - EX 710 - Util 72%
FICO (03/13/12): EQ: 696 (87% revolving to limits)