Reapplying for a credit card that is inactive but not closed?

[Anonymous]

This is a question for my wife's credit building. Long story short, she went through chapter 7 bankruptcy almost three years ago and is just now attempting to rebuild her credit. When we checked her credit, we were surprised to see that a couple store credit cards are still active. She hasn't received the cards for either of these in years, hasn't used them in years, they expired ages ago, have no balance. 

Do you think if she reapplied for them that they would go back to the original open date since they weren't closed? Would it be a good boost to her credit to have two 12+ year old credit cards active again?

She already applied for one of them and it was accepted at her old credit limit. Do store credit cards help at all in building credit?

[LS2982]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is a question for my wife's credit building. Long story short, she went through chapter 7 bankruptcy almost three years ago and is just now attempting to rebuild her credit. When we checked her credit, we were surprised to see that a couple store credit cards are still active. She hasn't received the cards for either of these in years, hasn't used them in years, they expired ages ago, have no balance. 

Do you think if she reapplied for them that they would go back to the original open date since they weren't closed? Would it be a good boost to her credit to have two 12+ year old credit cards active again?

She already applied for one of them and it was accepted at her old credit limit. Do store credit cards help at all in building credit?

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Store cards help but not as much as Bankcards do. I would recommend trying for a secured VISA/MC.

[pizzadude]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is a question for my wife's credit building. Long story short, she went through chapter 7 bankruptcy almost three years ago and is just now attempting to rebuild her credit. When we checked her credit, we were surprised to see that a couple store credit cards are still active. She hasn't received the cards for either of these in years, hasn't used them in years, they expired ages ago, have no balance. 

Do you think if she reapplied for them that they would go back to the original open date since they weren't closed? Would it be a good boost to her credit to have two 12+ year old credit cards active again?

She already applied for one of them and it was accepted at her old credit limit. Do store credit cards help at all in building credit?

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If the cards are actually still open then she might be able to call and request a replacment card rather than re~applying.   Typically a new application will result in a new account which likely won't have the older date opened of the previous account.

And yes, if the accounts are open and she can start using them again it would be better than opening a brand new account.    Also, store cards are viewed as revolving accounts similar to bank credit cards, so they will help.   FICO likes to see bank cards in the mix too.