Use It or Lose It Letter From Credit Card

[easysurfer]

I received a letter from one of my credit card companies saying my card hasn't been used for about 32 months and if not used by June, it will be terminated.

Think I'll use the card for 1 transaction before June. That will hold me over for another 32 months.

I like to keep my options open .

 

[youbet]

Why do you think it'll be 32 months next time?

 

[TheWizard]

Best to have an automatic charge to your CC each month if you want to keep it...

 

[MarieIG]

It's good that you got a warning. One of my cards was closed without warning. It did not have a large limit and was tied to a shopping channel. I had used it occasionally to get benefits associated with the use of the card, i.e. free shipping.

 

[easysurfer]

Why do you think it'll be 32 months next time?

Because it was 32 months this time?

 

[mountainsoft]

I got one of those use it or lose it emails a while back on a card we weren't using anymore. We already had two other cards (one of which we never use either), so we just closed it. Our credit score took a momentary dip for a few months, but is back to 810 now. So all good. Nice to have one less account to deal with and one less potential for scammers to use.

 

[Luvdogs]

In early March I received a letter from my Citi Sears Mastercard saying that they were going to reduce my limit from 10K to 2K if I didn't use it in two months. Said I hadn't used it in two years. Backstory before you start laughing about a Sears branded card...I was offered this about 20 years ago when I bought my first flatscreen TV. If I got the card I would get a certain percentage off the TV so I said ok. It's a regular Mastercard that I can use anywhere.

So whenever I get the letter I buy something small and put it away until next time.

Well this time I got another letter (figuring they were going to completely shut it down). No, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse--if I spend $500 on it by the end of April, I would get a $300 credit! So that was an easy $500 spend. I thought they would wait a couple of months to make sure I didn't return anything (it was all food, non-returnable things anyway) but I received the $300 credit just a few days later!

 

[harley]

Because it was 32 months this time?

Past performance is not indicative or future results.

 

[audreyh1]

That’s how I get rid of credit cards.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

I rarely cancel credit and will use my "unused" cards about once a year to keep them active. Mostly to keep my divisor high for credit scores and also to take advantage of "deals" on those cards that don't make the rewards value cut-off for daily use.

 

[pacergal]

I have small monthly charges on two of my cards and use a store brand card once yearly to keep them active.

 

[OldShooter]

DW and I each have one credit card, each with different banks and one debit card, also each with different banks. So four cards, four different issuers. This gives us backup when we travel internationally. Beyond this we have no interest in cards, though we could certainly play the freebie and balance-flipping games if we were so inclined.

Years ago I got a Home Depot card because they were offering 10% (IIRC) off on a lawn tractor I was buying. When the physical card arrived I shredded it and have paid no attention since. Probably I have received direct mail offers but I don't recall. I assume the card is long since dead.

Somewhere along the line I followed instructions on how to code my credit bureau files to tell people not to send us card offers and that seems to have worked.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I use each of mine at least once or twice every 3 months. It is nice to keep them as it keeps your credit score up.

 

[scrabbler1]

Back in 2009-2010, I had 2 banks send me those use-it-or-lose-it letters for credit cards I had not used in several years. This was in the wake of the financial crisis when banks were cutting back on credit, so it didn't surprise me. I still had my main CC although it got relegated to back-up status a few years later when I got a better, cash-back card.

That back-up card I kept one small, automatic, annual charge on it so the account stays open. This proved to be useful last May when, after lending my main CC to my ladyfriend, it failed to work properly at a local store. I went to the store and used my back-up card with no problem. It is for this reason that I keep that back-up card although I could have used my debit card as a back-up (not my preferred back-up).

 

[audreyh1]

I have way too many credit cards so when one falls into disuse, I’m happy to let it go. I had several close 2-4 years ago and my credit score remains up there 820-840. In facts it’s a bit higher than 2-4 years ago probably because I haven’t had a hard credit inquiry in many years.

 

[GenXguy]

My least used card is a non-rewards card, but it's also my oldest card, so I don't want to lose it because of its longer credit history for my credit report. My various credit scores are over 800. I've gotten in the habit of charging small purchases to it. I've never received any warnings.

 

[OldShooter]

As far back as I remember, my scores have been in the 820-840 range and I have read that is in the "well above excellent" range, so I pay no attention to keeping or dropping credit cards or, for that matter, any other administrative aspects of credit. The meat of the matter is paying one's bills on time and I always do that.

 

[Gumby]

After having received one of those letters many years back, I have made it a practice to charge something small to each credit card every January. I have them all on autopay, so it is not a problem. Except for that, we put all Amazon purchases on that card and everything else on our airline miles card.

 

[mystang52]

In early March I received a letter from my Citi Sears Mastercard saying that they were going to reduce my limit from 10K to 2K if I didn't use it in two months. Said I hadn't used it in two years. Backstory before you start laughing about a Sears branded card...I was offered this about 20 years ago when I bought my first flatscreen TV. If I got the card I would get a certain percentage off the TV so I said ok. It's a regular Mastercard that I can use anywhere.

So whenever I get the letter I buy something small and put it away until next time.

Well this time I got another letter (figuring they were going to completely shut it down). No, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse--if I spend $500 on it by the end of April, I would get a $300 credit! So that was an easy $500 spend. I thought they would wait a couple of months to make sure I didn't return anything (it was all food, non-returnable things anyway) but I received the $300 credit just a few days later!

EXACT same thing happened to me, with perfect timing. We were shopping for a new sofa anyway. I, too, made a small purchase to keep the card active, and when I got that $300 offer used the Sears Citi Card for a $500 deposit; it was nice to get a $300 discount. (I haven't used the card, since).

 

[Walt34]

Backstory before you start laughing about a Sears branded card...I was offered this about 20 years ago when I bought my first flatscreen TV.

Not laughing at you, my first credit card was a Sears card in 1972 because at the time I worked for Sears and I thought it'd be easier to get since I had such a sterling reputation there (not calling in sick, etc.). I wanted it just to establish a credit rating. I'd buy a shirt or pair of jeans once in a while and pay it off when the bill came. That minuscule credit rating allowed me to get my first apartment. And I still have the card.

 

[Chuckanut]

My auto insurance company has increased my rates because I opened too many credit cards in recent years. So I stopped getting new cards a few years ago. Now the excuse is I have too many credit cards.

Anybody else run into that issue?

 

[Badger]

I have a debit card that I obtained years ago just to access ATMs when traveling. I leave my CCs home. I kept a few thousand in it but not enough to worry about if it was stolen or hacked. I haven't used it in at least 5 years since traveling stopped for me. I have received a letter from the credit union where the card was issued that told me to use it or lose it so I made a small withdrawal and that satisfied them. That was a couple of years ago so I guess I should make another cash withdrawal before I get another letter.

 

[audreyh1]

Several of my “excess” credit cards are for international travel and two pairs of debit cards just used for international so when we generally stop or severely curtail international travel I look forward to dropping those and simplifying account tracking.

Since traveling two of our regular Visa cards (Citi Costco and Fidelity) dropped their foreign transaction fees so we almost don’t really need some of the extras anymore. Due to the proliferation of ApplePay and tap-to-pay in Europe I don’t really need my FirstTech pin-priority Visa anymore. As our foreign ATM withdrawals have dropped considerably we can already think about dropping one of the debit cards. We’ll see how it goes.

 

[Koolau]

I've had this warning before and didn't want to lose the card, so charged something.

I keep multiple CCs because I've had issues with cards being blocked for one reason or another (or, apparently, no reason at all.) Just today, a second card got blocked and the CC company agreed that it had happened but could not explain why it happened. The previous card block (yesterday) was because (they said) they had mailed something to me and it got returned. Can't imagine why that would have happened. BUT glad I had other cards in my "deck" to play. Up to 4 cards now - and seems like a good thing I do since "half" were blocked at the same time.

 

[harley]

Years ago I got a Home Depot card because they were offering 10% (IIRC) off on a lawn tractor I was buying. When the physical card arrived I shredded it and have paid no attention since. Probably I have received direct mail offers but I don't recall. I assume the card is long since dead.

As far back as I remember, my scores have been in the 820-840 range and I have read that is in the "well above excellent" range, so I pay no attention to keeping or dropping credit cards or, for that matter, any other administrative aspects of credit. The meat of the matter is paying one's bills on time and I always do that.

I agree that paying the bills on time is the most important aspect, but I don't think getting a card then ignoring it is a good idea. I did the same thing years ago with the Home Depot card (as well as Lowes and many other "store" cards). But with my Home Depot card, a few months after I used it to score the discount somebody stole the number from somewhere (certainly not from me, as I had also shredded the card after a single use). I happened to sign onto the card site to check something with my purchase and saw a ton of fairly large purchases that I hadn't made. I found it before they sent me the paper bill, although that would have notified me of the problem too. I was able to clear it up and get the card canceled, but it was a PITA. So now after I open a card, I check it monthly by just signing on, making sure the balance is still zero, then signing off. I do this every month for all of our cards until they drop a card for lack of use. It's not very time consuming, and saves me the annoyance of cleaning up after a theft situation.