Will I experience CLD? What do I do?

[mjb59463]

Hey everyone,

So as of a couple days ago, I'm officially 100% debt free on my credit cards. Scores are now in the 740+'s across the board. (I have my student loans, but those will be tackled as time goes on and I have absolutely no issue or difficulty meeting this obligation). 

Here is my portfolio as it stands now:

Wells Fargo: 0/7000

US Bank: 0/10,000

Amex Delta Platinum: 0/13,500

CSP: 0/20,000

Chase Freedom Unlimited: 55/6000 (filled my gas tank today)

Barclay Apple: 0/11,000

Today, Amex randomly gave me an auto CLI from 11k to 13.5k. 

Here's the issue: I don't plan to really use most of these cards as daily drivers. My plan was to pick a charge like Spotify/Netflix/Hulu/HBO/Showtime/cell phone/internet to trigger each month on them, and use only one (Chase freedom unlimited) for every day expenses like gas and food. Travel spend will be done on the Amex and CSP, but those are reimbursed by my employer when they do occur.

I like the size of my credit lines, but admittedly, I don't need them to be that high. I don't want to get in CC debt again, which is why I've resolved never to carry the high limit cards with me in case I am tempted to make some ridiculous impulsive purchase. I've thought about cancelling some of them (Wells/Barclay) outright, but that would do more harm than good in terms of account age and accounts open. They're in good standing and I've never been late on them. 

Will these issuers see that my usage has declined severely and decrease my credit lines with them? If so, is that just the way it's going to be? 

[SunriseEarth]

From what I read on the boards, CLDs typically result from inactivity as opposed to decreased activity.   So at least as far as your Chase FU & CSP and your AMEX, you should be just fine.  

As for the remaining cards that are in the SD, I'd recommend showing some activity on each CC at least one every 6 months.   Activity doesn't have to be major; it could just be one small purchase.   You may also want to see if you can PC the cards in your SD to products that would be of more use to you.   If you don't feel like doing some maintenance on the CCs, you could always close them or you could see if they eventually close from inactivity.  FICO scores don't favor "closed by consumer" over "closed by creditor". 

[Anonymous]

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@mjb59463 wrote:

Hey everyone,

So as of a couple days ago, I'm officially 100% debt free on my credit cards. Scores are now in the 740+'s across the board. (I have my student loans, but those will be tackled as time goes on and I have absolutely no issue or difficulty meeting this obligation). 

Here is my portfolio as it stands now:

Wells Fargo: 0/7000

US Bank: 0/10,000

Amex Delta Platinum: 0/13,500

CSP: 0/20,000

Chase Freedom Unlimited: 55/6000 (filled my gas tank today)

Barclay Apple: 0/11,000

Today, Amex randomly gave me an auto CLI from 11k to 13.5k. 

Here's the issue: I don't plan to really use most of these cards as daily drivers. My plan was to pick a charge like Spotify/Netflix/Hulu/HBO/Showtime/cell phone/internet to trigger each month on them, and use only one (Chase freedom unlimited) for every day expenses like gas and food. Travel spend will be done on the Amex and CSP, but those are reimbursed by my employer when they do occur.

I like the size of my credit lines, but admittedly, I don't need them to be that high. I don't want to get in CC debt again, which is why I've resolved never to carry the high limit cards with me in case I am tempted to make some ridiculous impulsive purchase. I've thought about cancelling some of them (Wells/Barclay) outright, but that would do more harm than good in terms of account age and accounts open. They're in good standing and I've never been late on them. 

Will these issuers see that my usage has declined severely and decrease my credit lines with them? If so, is that just the way it's going to be? 

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No need to worry, you're not going to get CLDed.  Just use any card that you want to keep periodically (at least once very 6 months-1 year) and you'll be fine.  Creditors will close a card for non usage but if you do as I indicated, you'll be fine.

[mjb59463]

Thanks for the responses! I'm glad to hear that the chances of me getting CLD'd are fairly low. 

~SunriseEarth:

I plan to run some small charge on cards in the SD (netflix, spotify, etc) every month that will be PIF'ed. As far as PC'ing cards that are no longer of use to something that might be of use, I really don't know of any products that I would want to switch to. The only accounts I actually care about are my CSP, Delta Amex and FU. The rest will probably never be used for anything significant again. 

Thanks to having to live pretty frugally in order to pay off my debt, I've come to actually enjoy this way of life, and don't really want my spending to change.

I'm not really sure if that's a pro or a con (lol), but that's just the way it is.