Sock Drawer

[Anonymous]

I don't know where to put this, so I'll post it here. How long have you had a card in the drawer before the creditor closed the account (or notified you it was going to be closed soon)? Someone holds a record here. I'm not looking for particular banks, CC's, etc. It's just something that crossed my mind. Maybe some issuers don't at all.

[wasCB14]

It varies by bank. Amex cards can go for years. Same for Chase. Citi reps have thrown around 2 years as a figure. Barclays has been as quick as 6 months.

Creditworthiness can also play a factor. Discover implied in their October corporate earnings call that they were strategically closing higher-risk inactive accounts. Not to say they wouldn't close a lower-risk account for inactivity, but they weren't targeting them.

[Anonymous]

About 7 1/2yrs for me. The card in question is a co-branded Helzberg dimond cap1 card. I received a warning and choose to keep it open (spent $6), as it's currently my oldest open account. That was about 4yrs ago.

[Rogue46]

To be on the safe side Iv'e been putting a small charge on each card every few months but I believe 6 months is probably the minimum. 

[wasCB14]

And keep in mind:

If you have to go out of your way to keep a card active, then maybe you don't really need it.

[Anonymous]

Interesting. I read posts about people SD'ing cards and I was just curious. I guess I should have phrased the question with maintaining a good score while doing so.

[Kree]

4-5 years with a discover.

[Anonymous]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

And keep in mind:

If you have to go out of your way to keep a card active, then maybe you don't really need it.

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Well in the case of some cards, they still add to your overall CL and by proxy add cushioning to your utilization. I rarely use my Discover card (only for the rotating gas and restaurants). It’s useless for 6 months of the year (and even more since they neutered all their benefits), but the $40,000 credit limit has helped to keep my overall utilization below 1% at all times. 

[wasCB14]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@wasCB14 wrote:

And keep in mind:

If you have to go out of your way to keep a card active, then maybe you don't really need it.

---

Well in the case of some cards, they still add to your overall CL and by proxy add cushioning to your utilization. I rarely use my Discover card (only for the rotating gas and restaurants). It’s useless for 6 months of the year (and even more since they neutered all their benefits), but the $40,000 credit limit has helped to keep my overall utilization below 1% at all times. 

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If you closed it and your utilization rose from 1% to 2%, your scores wouldn't change much. 2% is still very low.

If someone's utilization went from 10% to 20%, that would be another story.