Chase is Closing Accounts After 1 Year of Inactivity

After getting approved for any credit card, the next most important thing to do is to maintain the relationship. If you can keep a good relationship going, then that card issuer, or even any other card issuer is more likely to open a credit card in your name, even one with a higher limit! The most crucial way to keep a credit card open is to, use it.

Chase is sending out letters to some of its cardholders that state if they do not use the card soon, Chase will close the account. While it's nice that Chase is giving out this warning (many other issuers would just close the account and let you know after they do it), they are still paying attention to your spending. If you have cards that you don't have much of a need for, try downgrading/product changing to a different card. If there isn't an annual fee, it shouldn't matter too much. Keeping the card open will help your credit score through the age of average accounts.

If you do decide to close the account, that account will stay on your credit report for 10 years. Just make sure that a) the balance is paid off before you do close b) you have other accounts to make up for the lose of the account you closed in 10 year time.

As with any card you don't use regularly, try to make a schedule of using those "sock drawered" cards. For Chase, 1 year is the cutoff. To be safer, try to use it at least every 6 months. For me, I use my cards all at once at the end/beginning of each new quarter, or every 3 months just to be safe.

Creditalacarte is a travel blog/youtube channel that teaches the responsible use of credit in order to get some of the very best credit cards out there. With these credit cards, you can implement certain strategies to maximize the amount of points you can earn with every single (necessary) purchase you make. These points can then help you travel the world for practically free (travel hacking)! If this sounds exciting to you, be sure to follow our channel and blog as we post regularly.