Will my score drop if I let a credit card die off?

[Fitzgibbons]

I have a secured credit card from when I was repairing my credit.

I have no use for it any more. I never use it, but I got a notice saying that they will cancel it if I don't use it.

Obviously, this will affect my overall revolving credit limit (just $500 of like 17,000 total or so), but what about my average revolving line history? Or will it remain factored in even though the card has been closed?

What's my best course of action regarding my useless secured card from here on out?

[Remedios]

It will remain on your report for up to 10 years and continue to age during that time. 

[FinStar]

Honestly, you can close it if it no longer provides any tangible benefit. Get your security deposit.

About the only change(s) would be the decrease in the overall TCL. As far as AAoA, it will still be factored in (potentially up to ~10 years).

[rbentley]

Try to see if they will graduate it to an unsecured card.  If not, you should close it, if you have no use for it.  It is beleived that it looks better for you to close an unused credit line than for the creditor to mark it closed by them.

[FinStar]

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@rbentley wrote:

Try to see if they will graduate it to an unsecured card.  If not, you should close it, if you have no use for it.  It is beleived that it looks better for you to close an unused credit line than for the creditor to mark it closed by them.

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There's no substantiated proof on the bolded statement since from a scoring perspective that comment has no bearing.  The only time it *may* potentially come up for discussion (case-by-case basis) is upon a manual review and if several tradelines were closed by a lender in a short period of time.

[Anonymous]

No one has asked the OP yet what the age of this card is relative to his other cards.  Since it was a secured card, that suggests that it may be his oldest one.  If that's the case, moving it to an unsecured version and keeping it open in your SD with a swipe every 6 months or so could be beneficial 10 years from now, as that old account would remain and still continue to age where if you closed it today it would be gone by that time.

[Fitzgibbons]

You are correct. And that line of thinking it's exactly why I asked.

It just seems so annoying. But I think that's what I'll do

[Anonymous]

It's really not that annoying.  How long have you gone without using the card?  If it's (say) 2 years, that suggests that your lender doesn't require a swipe every 6 months to keep it alive.  You could push that out a year or longer and likely still be just fine.  It's also nice to know that your lender sends out a courtesy warning of potential closure before actually pulling the plug; many just close down the credit line unannounced.

I don't know anything about your lender here, but if you are able to unsecure the card perhaps they also have options where you can PC the card into something else in their line that you see value in and would actually have a reason to use the card.

[Fitzgibbons]

I used it 6 months ago

[FinStar]

Are any of your other tradelines roughly the same age as the secured CC? How far apart was the next tradeline that you opened from the secured card OP?