The dangers of the Sock Drawer

[Anonymous]

Every now and then we get the urge to take a credit card and stick it in the Sock Drawer (meaning not use it for an extended time). I recently took a card out of my sock drawer aftyer a 5 month hiatus and used it - and it cost me 3 points.

[xaximus]

I believe the impact goes away after a month or so. It's relatively minimal IMHO. That's why it's best to put a small continuous charge every month (Netflix, Hulu, etc.)

[CreditInspired]

Wow! 😫

Thanks flyingifr for letting us know.

[Anonymous]

Weird.

Was it simply the act of using it, or possibly the amount that likely lowered utilization? 

[CreditCuriosity]

Woudn't impact score it was something else that did it, but that was a triggering event for MF to update your score is all.  Even before that reported etc your score I can gurantee already changed in this case a few points down for other reasons

[Anonymous]

not a utilization issue -  $91 on $12000 witrh $10000 in additional lines with $0 owed on them.

[Anonymous]

This is very interesting. This is def a con to Sock Drawering.

[Anonymous]

There have been a few similar reports from other users over the past few months of the same thing... A few points lost when an "inactive account becomes active." Any loss from this though goes away with the next reporting of that card, as the "inactive" penalty goes away after that first cycle. Bottom line is that if this is the cause of your score drop one, it's very minor and two, it's very temporary.

[Pikaboo-icu]

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@Anonymous wrote:
There have been a few similar reports from other users over the past few months of the same thing... A few points lost when an "inactive account becomes active." Any loss from this though goes away with the next reporting of that card, as the "inactive" penalty goes away after that first cycle. Bottom line is that if this is the cause of your score drop one, it's very minor and two, it's very temporary.

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Yep.

This happened to me, I posted about it somewhere....

I had a "dormant account become active" and for me 'twas a 6 point drop.

Nothing else had changed on my report.. It was temporary.. 

[Anonymous]

Maybe minor and maybe temporary, but definitely unexpected. No description of how FICO's ouija board thinks and reacts to the sock drawer. The bottom line here is if you sock drawer a card, either leave it there until the issuer closes it out for non-usage or don't sock drawer it at all. I have 3 credit cards and I buy 3 tanks of gas a month. Now I know to put away the debit card and use each credit card once a month.