First and foremost, I wish to apologize to “plasticguy” for stealing his thread.
Your information is very valuable and having zero balance reporting to the credit bureaus on credit cards for long periods of time does have an adverse affect on your FICO Score.
Thanks for posting your results. We now have a better insight as how the Credit Issuers view dormant accounts.
The following is some information found on the Internet. I hope it is helpful for those who are adamant in building their FICO credit scores
Rotate and use all of your cards - a dormant credit account will not help your score
The average FICO credit score is calculated based on certain factors that affect your credit behavior. One of the factors that the FICO score is based from is your payment history, which is given more weight in calculating your individual credit score. Next up comes the different amounts that you currently own and the number and types of accounts as well as the balances that you maintain.
Another factor used in calculating for your average FICO credit score is the length of your credit history. This includes the length of time that your credit history can be tracked. The length of time of your accounts as well as the time since your last credit activity is also being looked upon to calculate for your average FICO credit score.
The types of credit accounts that you have maintained are also being put into consideration in the calculation of your FICO credit score. The number of new credit accounts that you have opened recently also has a weight in assessing your average FICO credit score.
