I would highly recommend to keep it open, throw a small charge on it and set it to auto-pay. I would not close it unless you absolutely need to. Even though it'll stay on your CR for 10 years after closing, I would leave it for now.
That's a good idea. I have a small checklist that I go through if I wanna keep a card or close -
1 - AF or no AF
2 - any special benefits that no other card I currently have provides?
3 - age
4 - can it be pc'd or combined
5 - credit limit and how often it has grown
I usually go through that checklist - if it has an AF, that alone is an indication that I would like to PC or close it. I always mention that when I'm speaking to a CSR. I have been able to get the AF waived before.
1 - AF or no AF
2 - any special benefits that no other card I currently have provides?
3 - age
4 - can it be pc'd or combined
5 - credit limit and how often it has grown
I usually go through that checklist - if it has an AF, that alone is an indication that I would like to PC or close it. I always mention that when I'm speaking to a CSR. I have been able to get the AF waived before.
@Anonymous wrote:I have a question for ya! ...Do you feel using your Credit cards to pay your general bills is good? Or using them each month for bills would mess up your UTI?
For example... We have all our Bills Elc/Cell/Water/Gas/Cable and so fourth auto paid but with our Checking account(which does nothing for your credit).. Would it be wise to set some of them to be Auto takin out of a Credit Card (with has a big enough limited already on it so you're not maxing it out each month)...and then just have the Credit card Autopay from the checking account that way the Card is being used and its payed off and I could get a CLI by doing this/showing good payments.. or Is doing this just a waste of an extra step? Because Im already on Autopay with all my bills but would it be wise to Autopay with Credit card and then Auto from my Checking account.
Personally - that is exactly what I do. For any and all bills that do not charge an extra fee for paying by credit card, I put on CC's, then have them auto-pay on either statement dates, or due dates. This way, I have either CB/Points/Miles always accumulating at all times. At one point, I was getting about 10k-20k in points on one card ( I used it as a daily driver and had a few bills hitting so it was around ~1k a month going through it easily in a month). With those points, I got 2 free flights. So it mostly definitely is worth it. Just make sure you can an eye on your bills/charges and make sure there's no discrepencies.
@rbentley wrote:
@xaximus wrote:
I would highly recommend to keep it open, throw a small charge on it and set it to auto-pay. I would not close it unless you absolutely need to. Even though it'll stay on your CR for 10 years after closing, I would leave it for now.Why do you recommend keeping it open? It will continue to age and contribute to his AAoA for 7-10 years. I am considering doing much the same thing and am interested in why I might want to keep it open. Mine has an AF and a small CL that is not growing.
In the OP's situation - I would keep it open for several reasons. One being age, two being that there's no AF, so there's no loss in leaving it open, it's helping his AAoA and with his other cards being quite a bit younger, that card has a bigger effect.
In your case - since you have an AF, small CL and not growing, I would definitely see what options you have - possibly try to PC to a non-AF card, not sure on the age of account or AAoA so unable to comment on that. I would definitely speak to a CSR to see what is available to PC too, what can be done about the AF, sometimes CSR's have the ability to waive it.