Use each credit card at least once per month to improve FICO score?

[Pap22]

From pulling my TrueCredit reports (canceling that!), it appears that whether you used the card or not, as long as you don't miss any required payments, it always gets marked down as "OK" on the quick-glance chart.  I understand that I should use a card at least once per quarter to keep it "active", but that only matters when I'm ready for a lender to pull my credit report.  If I have no intention of requesting credit any time in 2009, then does using each card once per month right now actually add value to my future credit score?

I have more credit cards than I need, but I only have 8 years of total credit history and only the last 2 years are good.  The first 3 years started off good, but then I had no money and missed payments and defaulted on several accounts (revolving and general). I always PIF and have no debt, so I hope to apply for my first mortgage in 2010 or so ($200-300k for a condo). I have no auto-loan history, so I hope to do whatever is possible to raise my score by adding as much "good" revolving account history as possible. My TU PFCIO is 684 as of 2008-12-01.

Edit: In case it matters, all of my current open accounts were opened from Jan 2007 or later. In fact, I had 0 revolving accounts between 2004 and 2006.

Message Edited by Pap22 on 12-26-2008 08:14 PM

Message Edited by Pap22 on 12-27-2008 02:29 PM

[Lel]

You don't need to use each card each month, but you should use at least one card and let it report a balance.  Carrying balances on too many credit cards can actually lower your score a bit.  I discovered that when I went from 5 cards to 1 card reporting balances, my score increased a small amount (about 10 points).  When I resumed my typical use of credit cards (that is, using 4 or 5 different cards per month), my score went down just a smidge.

[Anonymous]

I agree: Circulate your cards and have each report at least every 6 month.

I disagree: Fuerstenberg Pilsner ist NOT one of the best beers in the world ;-) 

[Anonymous]

When I'm trying to get my FICO score up, I only let one card report a balance each month.  If I use another card, I PIF before the closing date for that account.  Also, I rarely let AMEX report, because of their lag in reporting balances, so usually I PIF them before the closing date. 

And you can use that same 'trick' to keep other credit cards 'active'... just charge something small on it and then pay it off before the closing date for that account.  The activity counts towards using the card, but the reported balance to the CRAs is zero.

But if you're not going to be app'ing for credit, you don't have to do all that.

[wmarat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I agree: Circulate your cards and have each report at least every 6 month.

I disagree: Fuerstenberg Pilsner ist NOT one of the best beers in the world ;-) 

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You are right.

[Lel]

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Physicist wrote: 

I disagree: Fuerstenberg Pilsner ist NOT one of the best beers in the world ;-) 

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Physicist and wmarat: you have made a very powerful enemy today.  Okay, that's not true.  I'm not powerful.  But I'm still your enemy.