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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.
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.
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.
4-5 years with a discover.
@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.
@Anonymous wrote:
@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.
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.