

You might also consider putting a small recurring charge on the card to keep it active, or making it your primary card for a frequent purchase - say, for gasoline purchases. To keep a credit card active, you may want to consider using it – responsibly – every few months, if only for small purchases. How do I avoid having credit cards canceled for inactivity? A VantageScore is one of many types of credit scores.

#How to schedule email to send after a period of inactivity free#
In addition, you can click “Get my free credit score” on your myEquifax dashboard to enroll in Equifax Core Credit™ for a free monthly Equifax credit report and a free monthly VantageScore® 3.0 credit score, based on Equifax data. You’re entitled to a free copy of your credit reports every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus by visiting You can also create a myEquifax account to get six free Equifax credit reports each year. If you decide not to ask that the card be reinstated, it’s a good idea to check your credit report to make sure the card account shows as closed. Some lenders will reinstate the account, although you may be subject to a credit check. If your card has been canceled but you want to keep it, you can contact the credit card company about the cancellation. Even if you paid the account as agreed, it can remain on your reports for up to 10 years. Please note that a closed account isn’t immediately removed from your credit reports.

If you have a credit card, be sure to understand the company’s policy about rewards and benefits if an account is closed due to inactivity. In addition, if a credit card is closed due to inactivity, you may lose card benefits or accumulated rewards. If you have only one credit card and it is closed, it may impact the variety of your credit types, which could impact your credit scores. This includes installment loans and credit cards, to name a couple. Lenders and creditors like to see that you are able to responsibly handle different types of credit.Creditors and lenders prefer to see a lower ratio of how much debt you have compared with how much available credit you have. The cancellation may affect your debt to credit utilization ratio, which is the amount of credit you're using as compared to the amount of credit available to you.The Credit Card Act of 2009 requires lenders and creditors to provide customers with 45 days’ notice of major changes to their account, but that doesn’t include card cancellation notification because of inactivity.Ī credit card canceled for inactivity may impact you in the following ways: Credit card companies aren’t required to give you any notice that they’re closing your account.

Will I be notified before my account is closed? You may want to consider speaking with the credit card company with whom you have an account to learn more about its policies on account inactivity. Accounts may be deemed inactive if there aren’t any new purchases on the card for a certain period of time. How long can my account be inactive before it's closed? If you weren’t using the credit card, will the cancellation impact you at all? That depends on several factors, but here are some of the things you should know about account inactivity. A part of that is being able to use credit cards responsibly by paying them off regularly, on time, every time. Remember that when it comes to credit, it’s important to show that you can handle financial commitments responsibly. You may not have given much thought to the credit card in the back of your wallet or in a drawer – the one that was paid off and that you haven’t used in a while.īut after a certain period of time, which varies depending on the lender or creditor’s policies, they may consider your account “inactive” and it may be closed. The cancellation may impact your debt to credit utilization ratio and your mix of credit accounts.You may not be notified before this happens.Paid accounts that are inactive may be closed by the lender after a certain period of time.
