Minimum usage to keep Chase and CapOne happy?

[Anonymous]

My BF has two cards from Chase and one from CapOne. His Slate has a limit of $4,900, his Freedom has a limit of $2,500. His CapOne Platinum has a limit of $5,500.

What is the minimum spend he needs for each card to keep them from lowering his limits and/or closing the accounts?

He is not looking for credit line increase on any of these cards, just does not want to lose them (or needlessly lose available credit).

[HeavenOhio]

Capital One has been tightening up on non-usage; someone else will need to chime in on details. But I think your BF's limits with both banks are low enough that he should be fine if he simply keeps those cards from lying completely dormant.

He should check in to see if he can upgrade the Capital One card and the Slate to potentially make them more useful. It's possible that he can upgrade his Capital One card to a Quicksilver. And his Chase card may be upgradeable to either a Freedom Unlimited or a second Freedom card.

[Physh1]

Is there a reason he's worried about this? There is no min spend...just use them here & there to keep them active. A charge or 2 a month...put a reoccuring bill on them like his cell bill, Netflix, car insurance, any monthly subscription, etc. Irresponsible use or non-use over a long period of time will cause a CLD.

[HeavenOhio]

@Physh1, banks will lower limits that have been seeing low usage. AMEX has been doing quite a bit of that, although they've been restoring those limits upon request. We've also been seeing this kind of limit reduction from Synchrony.

In the past, Capital One would lower limits to 10k if they were above that amount and seeing spending of approximately $100 per month or less over the period of about a year. I'm not sure what recent Cap One limit reductions have entailed, which is why I asked for someone else to chime in.

[blindambition]

I won't comment on Chase, because I use mine quite a bit. My Cap One QS has a limit of $4800. For past 2 years it's only had a recurring charge of $20 for my Experian sub. I've had no AA. I do have a Saver One that does get decent spend.

[Anonymous]

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@HeavenOhio wrote:

Capital One has been tightening up on non-usage; someone else will need to chime in on details. But I think your BF's limits with both banks are low enough that he should be fine if he simply keeps those cards from lying completely dormant.

That is good to hear. I think I will move one of our iPad Data Plans to each of his cards ($34.99 a month), then put $500 into his CapOne 360 Savings account and set it to pay from there, and do the same from his Marcus account for this Slate card. The Freedom card has some benefit for Amazon purchases this quarter, so I am not too worried about it.

He should check in to see if he can upgrade the Capital One card and the Slate to potentially make them more useful. It's possible that he can upgrade his Capital One card to a Quicksilver. And his Chase card may be upgradeable to either a Freedom Unlimited or a second Freedom card.

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Any downside to a product change for the QuickSilver? Given Chase's recent adverse action against him (cut his slate line to $4,900 from $9,800 and his Freedom from $7,000 to $2,500), I do not really want to do anything to his accounts that draws any attention to them anytime soon.

[Anonymous]

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@Physh1 wrote:

Is there a reason he's worried about this?

Yes, because he has no [edited to add the left out words] need for the current the credit from for his CapOne Platinum and Chase Slate cards and get no benefit from using them, so he wants to put the absolutely minimum spending on both, but does not want to lose the account age nor risk the negatives of credit line decreases.

There is no min spend...just use them here & there to keep them active. A charge or 2 a month...put a reoccuring bill on them like his cell bill, Netflix, car insurance, any monthly subscription, etc. Irresponsible use or non-use over a long period of time will cause a CLD.

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There is a big difference between a $9.99 NetFlix charge and a ~$100 mobile phone bill. It would be super frustrating to put a $9.99 charge on the card and see it closed anyway. Given how skitish all the credit grantors have been lately, he just wants to make sure that he is hitting the minimums but not giving up better rewards on other cards.

[HeavenOhio]

I didn't realize that your BF had recently been subjected to AA for protracted high balances. If there's such a thing as a silver lining, those high balances will serve as a cushion of sorts for the time being against any lack of usage concerns.

There's no downside to upgrading your Capital One card. Upgrades from the Platinum seem to be completely independent from anything involved in underwriting.

While I agree with the advice in the other thread about not poking the Chase bear, requesting a product change once you feel comfortable isn't very likely to raise eyebrows. It's not like asking for a CLI or a new card.

[Credit12Fico]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Physh1 wrote:

Is there a reason he's worried about this?

Yes, because he has no current the credit from for his CapOne Platinum and Chase Slate cards and get no benefit from using them, so he wants to put the absolutely minimum spending on both, but does not want to lose the account age nor risk the negatives of credit line decreases.

There is no min spend...just use them here & there to keep them active. A charge or 2 a month...put a reoccuring bill on them like his cell bill, Netflix, car insurance, any monthly subscription, etc. Irresponsible use or non-use over a long period of time will cause a CLD.

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There is a big difference between a $9.99 NetFlix charge and a ~$100 mobile phone bill. It would be super frustrating to put a $9.99 charge on the card and see it closed anyway. Given how skitish all the credit grantors have been lately, he just wants to make sure that he is hitting the minimums but not giving up better rewards on other cards.

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It's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Given the card has not been seeing usage, I'd be skittish of AA from plonking a $100 charge on it all at once...but perhaps I'm being way too paranoid...but a card not being used, suddenly getting usage can be a red flag sometimes also.

[Anonymous]

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@Credit12Fico wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

There is a big difference between a $9.99 NetFlix charge and a ~$100 mobile phone bill. It would be super frustrating to put a $9.99 charge on the card and see it closed anyway. Given how skitish all the credit grantors have been lately, he just wants to make sure that he is hitting the minimums but not giving up better rewards on other cards.

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It's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Given the card has not been seeing usage, I'd be skittish of AA from plonking a $100 charge on it all at once...but perhaps I'm being way too paranoid...but a card not being used, suddenly getting usage can be a red flag sometimes also.

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It was just paid off, so adding a single charge on it should not be too big a deal, just trying to keep it as low as makes sense.