PhillyGuy215 wrote:
bunnyrabbit, with 19K in revolving debt s/he shoud NOT be using the cards other than for small charges to keep the issuers from closing the accounts for inactivity.
To get the 19K down, the amount of new charges needs to be LESS THAN what you're paying on the CC bills each month. I would look at it like this:
If I pay $600 a month towards my 19K debt, then I will not charge more than $300 of any NEW DEBT on the cards. That means each month the total balances on the cards goes down by $240 or so (depending on how much finance charges you accrue every month).
If I pay $600 a month towards my 19K and charge NOTHING on the accounts except for very small charges like gum, coffee, cigarettes, whatever... that means almost 100% of my pay-down goes towards the total debt balance.
Keep in mind that most credit issuers don't flag accounts as inactive until at LEAST 6 months of inactivity have passed and many won't flag them inactive until 9-12 months out and most issuers won't consider an account to be inactive as long as it as a balance on it. Except for AMEX and a very short list of others, most banks and CU card issuers looking to close inactive accounts are searching for any accounts that have no activity at all on them... which would be $0 balance accounts (paying a CC bill counts as an activity).
It should be OP's name .... if you want to tell OP to not use his/her ccs.
I only advised to OP is "keep them and use them", I never advised him/her to charge with large amount. Did I ?
Should just tell OP ... If he/she is going to use his/her ccs, use the cards for small charges to keep the issuers from closing the accounts for inactivity.
