In general, as long as you don't have annual fees, or problems with temptation, it's a good idea to keep CC accounts open even if you don't use them often. Around here, we call it "sock drawering", as in you park it somewhere safe and out of the way, and you don't carry the card with you. Use each one every 4 months or so to keep the account open. We used to say six months, but someone reported having his/ her account closed after 6 months of inactivity.
With your chopped-up card, presumably you know the account number. If you don't want to have a physical card, you might want to consider using the account for some sort of one-time online purchase. Others use theirs for recurring bills or monthly charitable donations.
If you decide to get a physical replacement for the card, be sure to ask first whether there will be a charge or any other action. One poster reported that s/he got hit with a hard inquiry simply for replacing a card, which you definitely don't want to have happen.
In case you haven't read it yet, please read "Credit Scoring 101." The link is posted at the top of the General Credit forum. Here's the URL, but I'm in Firefox at the moment, so you'll have to copy/ paste it into your browser window:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
