cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Inactive account becomes active

tag
jlitnns
Established Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active

You can thank this guy for punching the 'ok' button for those 12 years...Robot LOL

 

office_space_8976.jpg


Message 11 of 35
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active


@AppHappyTog wrote:

Same thing happened on EQ for me a couple weeks ago after I used my buckle store card and paid the balance before the statement cut. It had probably been about 2-3 months since I’d last used it so I found it a little odd. Didn’t lose any points but this is an interesting read. 


@AppHappyTog, does your Buckle card report the "date of last payment"? I'm guessing it must if you paid before the statement cut and you got the alert.

 

In contrast, AMEX doesn't report the date of last payment. I use the card every month and got the alert after two consecutive months of reporting balances of zero.

 

I have a several cards that routinely report zero for several months in a row (or more). They all report the date of last payment and don't generate the alert when they do report a positive balance.

Message 12 of 35
AppHappyTog
Regular Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active


@HeavenOhio wrote:

@AppHappyTog wrote:

Same thing happened on EQ for me a couple weeks ago after I used my buckle store card and paid the balance before the statement cut. It had probably been about 2-3 months since I’d last used it so I found it a little odd. Didn’t lose any points but this is an interesting read. 


@AppHappyTog, does your Buckle card report the "date of last payment"? I'm guessing it must if you paid before the statement cut and you got the alert.

 

In contrast, AMEX doesn't report the date of last payment. I use the card every month and got the alert after two consecutive months of reporting balances of zero.

 

I have a several cards that routinely report zero for several months in a row (or more). They all report the date of last payment and don't generate the alert when they do report a positive balance.


Just looked because that makes sense, but it’s not showing any date of last payment on EQ where the alert was enervated from. Maybe internally something I’m not seeing on my report from my end? 



Current Scores 4/18: EQ8 645/EQ9 686/TU 664/EX 682
Starting Scores 10/17: EQ 590 /TU 592/EX 560
AAoA: 3y6mo
Message 13 of 35
AppHappyTog
Regular Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active


@jlitnns wrote:

You can thank this guy for punching the 'ok' button for those 12 years...Robot LOL

 

office_space_8976.jpg


Smiley Very Happy 



Current Scores 4/18: EQ8 645/EQ9 686/TU 664/EX 682
Starting Scores 10/17: EQ 590 /TU 592/EX 560
AAoA: 3y6mo
Message 14 of 35
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active


@AppHappyTog wrote:

@HeavenOhio wrote:

@AppHappyTog wrote:

Same thing happened on EQ for me a couple weeks ago after I used my buckle store card and paid the balance before the statement cut. It had probably been about 2-3 months since I’d last used it so I found it a little odd. Didn’t lose any points but this is an interesting read. 


@AppHappyTog, does your Buckle card report the "date of last payment"? I'm guessing it must if you paid before the statement cut and you got the alert.


Just looked because that makes sense, but it’s not showing any date of last payment on EQ where the alert was enervated from. Maybe internally something I’m not seeing on my report from my end? 


@AppHappyTog, which credit monitoring service are you looking at? Do you see a date of last payment field for any of your other cards?

 

When I look at my myFICO reports, that field isn't shown at all. On Credit Karma, the field is included. But while balances are current, payment information lags for Equifax lags a month behind TransUnion.

Message 15 of 35
AppHappyTog
Regular Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active


@HeavenOhio wrote:

@AppHappyTog wrote:

@HeavenOhio wrote:

@AppHappyTog wrote:

Same thing happened on EQ for me a couple weeks ago after I used my buckle store card and paid the balance before the statement cut. It had probably been about 2-3 months since I’d last used it so I found it a little odd. Didn’t lose any points but this is an interesting read. 


@AppHappyTog, does your Buckle card report the "date of last payment"? I'm guessing it must if you paid before the statement cut and you got the alert.


Just looked because that makes sense, but it’s not showing any date of last payment on EQ where the alert was enervated from. Maybe internally something I’m not seeing on my report from my end? 


@AppHappyTog, which credit monitoring service are you looking at? Do you see a date of last payment field for any of your other cards?

 

When I look at my myFICO reports, that field isn't shown at all. On Credit Karma, the field is included. But while balances are current, payment information lags for Equifax lags a month behind TransUnion.


I checked MyFICO reports since my 3B just updated a couple weeks ago and also monitor with experian which just updated all bureaus this week. I’ll take a look at CK, I never even look at that app haha. 



Current Scores 4/18: EQ8 645/EQ9 686/TU 664/EX 682
Starting Scores 10/17: EQ 590 /TU 592/EX 560
AAoA: 3y6mo
Message 16 of 35
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Inactive account becomes active

Interesting Post. Just for a recent data point, I got a myFico alert for Equifax on 4-12-18. Status was "an account that has been inactive for more than 3 months has become recently active".  My score went from 709 to 702. That was the first Equifax change since 4-5-18. There were two other changes that reported that day both were related to mid-cycle Chase payments causing my two Chase accounts to be reported as decreased by $703 and $1237 (each ot $0).   It's hard to say what caused the score drop as there were no other changes, so I started looking to see if it was related to the inactive account becoming active, which was a Pier 1 card that I used in the store recently to buy a large piece of furniture and get a 20% discount and 3x reward points and paid off before the balance before the statement cut. 

Message 17 of 35
jlitnns
Established Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active


@Anonymous wrote:

Interesting Post. Just for a recent data point, I got a myFico alert for Equifax on 4-12-18. Status was "an account that has been inactive for more than 3 months has become recently active".  My score went from 709 to 702. That was the first Equifax change since 4-5-18. There were two other changes that reported that day both were related to mid-cycle Chase payments causing my two Chase accounts to be reported as decreased by $703 and $1237 (each ot $0).   It's hard to say what caused the score drop as there were no other changes, so I started looking to see if it was related to the inactive account becoming active, which was a Pier 1 card that I used in the store recently to buy a large piece of furniture and get a 20% discount and 3x reward points and paid off before the balance before the statement cut. 


I posted that my Ashley Furniture card hadn't been used and so I purchased something and let it report on the statement and MF updated as well and said that an account that has been inactive for 20 months now became active again. My Equifax score jumped 8 points though, the only change was that account became active, the balance increased 100% by $43. Weird. Anyway, paid off and now not worried about it, it has never said inactive or showed anything other than paid as agreed or OK on my CB's. 


Message 18 of 35
Shadowfactor
Valued Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active

Question
Does a card have to report a balance every so often in order to be considered active ?

I have 4 cards I use throughout the month but pay off to zero before statement closing so they don’t report a balance. It’s always the same cards that I let report a zero balance.

I was under the impression that the payment activity would keep the cards active ?




Total Revolving Limits $254,800

Message 19 of 35
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: Inactive account becomes active

Reviewing what I posted earlier…

 

My AMEX card doesn't report the "date of last payment." After two months of zero balances, I got the EQ "inactive card has become active" alert.

 

My test card (Capital One) reports the date of last payment. It had reported balances of zero for about 14 consecutive months, but it had seen usage each month. I didn't get the EQ alert.

 

I have another card (Barclays), that reports the date of last payment, gets used every month, reports a non-zero balance every five or six months, and has never generated the alert.

 

I don't know that this is enough to fully answer the question, but it's the difference I see with my cards.

Message 20 of 35
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.