Question about account closure due to inactivity...

[Anonymous]

What is everyone's experience with banks closing their accounts due to inactivity? I have been scared that some of my cards will be closed because I don't use them a whole lot. I have kept a very small balance on some of them to make sure they see some activity. I have heard some accounts are closed after a year, some after 6 months? What is everyone's strategy for that?

[Kostya1992]

Cap1 & SYNCH will never close.

[DeadlyPersona]

Good question.  I have a Care Credit card and it's had 0 balance for 3 months now.  I know I will have some dental work done over the summer and I definitely don't want it to close. 

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What is everyone's experience with banks closing their accounts due to inactivity? I have been scared that some of my cards will be closed because I don't use them a whole lot. I have kept a very small balance on some of them to make sure they see some activity. I have heard some accounts are closed after a year, some after 6 months? What is everyone's strategy for that?

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As always, creditors vary.  Verify with each of your creditors what their policy is on closure due to inactivity.  Use that information to determine how you address minimum activity.  Don't rely on polling others.

[CraigHwk]

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@DeadlyPersona wrote:

Good question.  I have a Care Credit card and it's had 0 balance for 3 months now.  I know I will have some dental work done over the summer and I definitely don't want it to close. 

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I'm sure individual results may vary, but I haven't used my CareCredit in over 2 years and it's still open.  Going to be using it soon as I'm sure it could close at any moment.

Had a GAP card that closed after about a year if inactivity.  Forgot about it.  

For cards I no longer use, I put small re-occuring payments on them (Like Netflix for my CapOne Plat, Comcast bill for Barclays MC) and have automatic payments set.   Seems that that'll do.

[Anonymous]

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@Kostya1992 wrote:

Cap1 & SYNCH will never close.

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That's good to hear.  I got a Cap One card that sits in the SD.  It's had a balance for the last 3 months (0% APR) that I'm paying down.  First card I got when I got interested in credit... Good for the $100 signup bonus, but unfortunately doesn't see much use for me.

[Tonya-E]

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@DeadlyPersona wrote:

Good question.  I have a Care Credit card and it's had 0 balance for 3 months now.  I know I will have some dental work done over the summer and I definitely don't want it to close. 

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I had a CareCredit account non-activity for about 2.5 years. At that point they reduced my 6K CL to 5400 or something like that. They never closed it though.

[ilovelisa]

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@Kostya1992 wrote:

Cap1 & SYNCH will never close.

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I asked Cap1 and they said they send a letter at the 6 month marks of inactivity and give you a month to use it before they close it.

Edit: Not sure how true this is though. Everyone knows Capital One, if you ask two CSRs how the name of the company is spelled, you will get different answers.

[taxi818]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What is everyone's experience with banks closing their accounts due to inactivity? I have been scared that some of my cards will be closed because I don't use them a whole lot. I have kept a very small balance on some of them to make sure they see some activity. I have heard some accounts are closed after a year, some after 6 months? What is everyone's strategy for that?

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very rare heard of account being closed after 6 months. not when you got entire story. or just from inactivity. and also rare at a year. 2 years ok. but not a year. but even then . no need to carry balance. i pack of bubble gum will always do the trick. put them in rotation for your favorite flavor. then there you go. never a issue. and i have 18 cards. and they all see some love once and a while. even if just once a year.