SoulAssassin
Diamond Member
- Feb 1, 2001
- 6,135
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It's hard to generalize and say 'keep your oldest card open'. The important number is the average age of all of your lines and the oldest. If your oldest card has been open for 10 years and you have 4 cards you opened 6 months ago, it may actually be to your advantage to close the 4 (though if you wait several years they become your oldest as you apply for others which helps you more long term vs immediate). If you opened 1 card 10 years ago and another 9 years ago and 3 more 6 months ago you don't want to close the 9 year old card anymore than you want to close the 6.
As far as using it occasionally, that was almost a myth until recently. Due to current economic conditions many banks are drastically reducing credit lines and closing inactive accounts as part of big risk reduction strategies. Let's put it this way, it doesn't hurt you to have it out there inactive (unless paying annual fee) and using it from time to time does nothing measurable for your FICO score.
<-employed by the credit card industry since 1998
As far as using it occasionally, that was almost a myth until recently. Due to current economic conditions many banks are drastically reducing credit lines and closing inactive accounts as part of big risk reduction strategies. Let's put it this way, it doesn't hurt you to have it out there inactive (unless paying annual fee) and using it from time to time does nothing measurable for your FICO score.
<-employed by the credit card industry since 1998
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