Good to have a card even if you do not use it or use it very rarely?

[Anonymous]

After doing a fair amount of research, I still have this queston. If i have a card that i do not plan to use much if at all, is it a bad idea to get/ have it? Or is having the open line of credit a good thing regardless?

[OmarGB9]

Depends on the card. If it's a toy limit store card, probably not. On the other hand, if it's a bank card with a high CL and no AF, keeping it open with minimal activity can help with utilization as well as AAoA.

[kdm31091]

Eh. If you have a few other cards, closing it is not going to cause a score plummet or anything.

I usually am in the camp of "if it is no longer useful and is never going to be useful, you should close it" . Sometimes sockdrawing for a period of time makes sense, if you just opened some new cards closing others right away could appear as churning, but in general, if its useless to you, move on

[Anonymous]

If it no longer benefits you or costs you money, close it.

[elim]

it still leaves green marks on your reports.  

[happypill]

There are some cards that are good to have even if you almost never use them.  I'm thinking of some of the hotel cards that offer annual bonuses that are more valuable than the AF they charge, like the Barclays Wyndham Rewards and Chase IHG.  I think there are some airline cards & high-end cards that offer annual points/benefits that are worth keeping just for those rewards, even if you don't use them.

[baller4life]

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@happypill wrote:

There are some cards that are good to have even if you almost never use them.  I'm thinking of some of the hotel cards that offer annual bonuses that are more valuable than the AF they charge, like the Barclays Wyndham Rewards and Chase IHG.  I think there are some airline cards & high-end cards that offer annual points/benefits that are worth keeping just for those rewards, even if you don't use them.

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+1. Exactly why I will always keep IHG. Definitely worth af.

[Anonymous]

It all depends on the card really. If you have Chase freedom that you rarely use but it's your first card and it has a 15,000 CL and no AF, then keeping it would probably be an okay decision. If you have a WF visa that has a 1,000 CL and you opened it the same time as the freedom..then you it's okay to close WF. Now if they were your only two cards...you should probably keep both. It all depends on how many cards and what type of cards you have.

If you have an AF card that's a waste and costing you money to keep it open, then close it. However I agree with baller..if it's a card like the IHG, which kind of offers an incentive to keep it open..it's well worth it.

[Anonymous]

Green marks mean nothing without hard history to back them up.

[elim]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Green marks mean nothing without hard history to back them up.

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   green marks are history