How Often Should You Use a Credit Card to Keep It Active?
Introductory bonuses on miles and points credit cards are awesome, often worth hundreds of dollars a pop to use for free family travel. After that initial boost of goodness, however, all cards are not created equal. You will not reach for most of them on a regular basis. Here’s the problem. Credit card companies will shut you down due to inactivity faster than the Conners killed off Roseanne. How often should you use your credit card to keep it active? (Updated for 2026.)
How Often Should You Use a Credit Card to Keep it Active?: The Quick Answer
The short version: use each card at least once every six months and you’ll almost certainly be fine. Most issuers don’t pull the trigger until you’ve gone 12 or more months with no activity, so a single small purchase a couple of times a year keeps the lights on. Want to be extra safe? Tap each card once a quarter. No, you do not need to use it every month, and no, you do not need to carry a balance — that just hands the bank interest for nothing.
- How often: at least every six months; quarterly if you’re a nervous person.
- How much: a single small charge counts — a coffee, a tank of gas, one streaming subscription on autopay.
- When closures happen: usually after 12+ months of zero activity.
- Do they warn you? Sometimes. There’s no law requiring advance notice, so don’t count on it.
- Most at risk: no-annual-fee cards. Cards with an annual fee rarely get closed for inactivity.
1. Why Would a Credit Card Company Shut You Down?
2. Does the Company Warn You Before They Shut You Down?
3. Why Should You Care if Your Card is Shut Down for Inactivity?
4. How Often Should You Use Your Credit Card to Keep it Active?
5. Ways to Prevent a Card From Slipping Through the Cracks
6. Can the Card Be Reopened After a Credit Card Inactivity Closure?
7. Do You Really Want the Card to Be Reopened?
8. FAQ: Credit Card Inactivity
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How Often Should You Use Your Credit Card to Keep it Active?
1. Why Would a Credit Card Company Shut You Down?
You made your payments on time and carry no balance. Why would a credit card company close your account?
You aren’t technically doing anything wrong, but it costs the company money to keep your account open. It only has so much credit to extend. If your credit card sits untouched for a long stretch — generally a year or more — the issuer would rather hand your line of credit to someone who’ll actually swipe it. An idle account earns the bank nothing in swipe fees and still ties up its money, so eventually it cleans house. This is why no-annual-fee cards get axed the most: there’s no fee propping up the relationship, so a dormant one is pure dead weight. Cards that charge you a yearly fee, on the other hand, almost never get closed for inactivity — the bank is happily collecting that fee whether you use the card or not.
2. Does the Company Have to Warn You Before it Shuts You Down?
You were a responsible customer who held up your end of the bargain with the credit card company. Can you really have your credit card closed without warning? You sure can. No law requires an issuer to give you advance notice before closing an account for inactivity — the CARD Act’s 45-day notice rule covers things like rate and fee hikes, not closures. The company is in charge here.
With that said, some companies will give you a heads up anyway. Watch for credit card warning letters or emails — they usually arrive a few weeks before the closure date and exist purely so you can swipe the card once and call off the execution.
Which Companies Provide Warnings Before Closing Accounts?
Fair warning: none of the banks publish their inactivity rules, so everything below is crowd-sourced from cardholders (much of it via Doctor of Credit’s long-running data) rather than official policy. Treat it as directional, not gospel — policies vary by cardholder and can change at any time. Reports suggest the following:
American Express
Amex tends to move relatively quickly — cardholders report closures around the one-year mark. It will often email a heads-up (frequently about a month out) giving you a chance to prevent the closure by using the card, but some report getting no warning at all.
Bank of America
Bank of America credit card inactivity seems to be largely forgiven — reports point to roughly two years before it acts. The bank generally mails a warning letter (often around 30 days out) and gives you the chance to prevent the closure.
Barclaycard
Barclaycard, also known to be tight with approvals and retention offers, is the wild card here. Reports range from about a year to two years before closure, and the advance warning is inconsistent — sometimes you get one, sometimes the card just vanishes.
Capital One
Capital One is among the most relaxed — many cardholders report multiple years of inactivity before anything happens, and it generally gives advance notice so you can keep the card by using it.
Chase
Chase usually gives a heads-up, often around the one-to-two-year mark, and you can typically call in to keep the card open. Reports do vary, though — some get warned, some don’t.
Citi
Citi is one of the slowest to act — reports point to around 25-plus months of inactivity — but it’s also known to shut people down without warning once it finally does. Slow to anger, quick to ghost.
3. Why Should You Care if You Are Shut Down?
Why should you care if your account is shut down? You didn’t use it anyway, right? Maybe, but there are potential consequences.
A. Unused Miles and Points May Be Forfeited
Seriously, my credit card company can shut me down and keep my points? Often, yes — issuer-proprietary points like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards are typically forfeited when the account closes. Some issuers give you a grace window (often reported around 30 days, and Citi has been known to allow redemption for a couple of months) to spend what’s left, but don’t count on it. The good news: any airline or hotel miles you’ve already transferred into your loyalty account — your Southwest, Hyatt, or Marriott balance — are generally safe, because they live with the airline or hotel, not the bank. Transfer first, ask questions later.
B. Your Credit Score Could Take a Hit
Does credit card inactivity affect your credit score? Indirectly, it might.
Your credit score is determined by several factors, the most important of which is whether you pay your bills on time. Sitting on a card without using it won’t ding your score by itself — but having that card closed can hurt your score in two big ways.
B1. Credit Utilization Ratio
What does credit utilization mean? Your credit utilization ratio measures how much of your available credit you’re using, and it’s worth roughly 30% of your FICO score — the second-biggest factor after payment history. Aim to use less than 30% of your available credit, and lower is better; the single-digit range is ideal. One caveat the internet loves to get wrong: 30% is a guideline, not a magic cliff that triggers a sudden drop the moment you cross it. (For perspective, the average U.S. consumer sits right around 29%, so “below 30%” is a goal, not a given.)
Note: Using your credit each month is not the same as carrying a balance. Issuers look for new transactions, not a balance you let ride. If you are not paying your balance in full each month, you should not be churning through cards. The interest and fees will far outweigh the benefits you receive.
How Much Does a Closed Account Affect Your Credit Utilization Ratio?
When a card closes, you lose its credit limit, which shrinks your total available credit and pushes your utilization up. If you have a bunch of credit cards, the closure of one will not really matter. If you just have a couple, this could be a big problem, as illustrated in the examples below.
Example 1
You have two credit cards with credit limits of $10,000 each, for a total available credit limit of $20,000. You charge $5,000 per month. The $5,000 you have on your card at any one time divided by your total credit limit of $20,000 gives you a credit utilization of 25%.
Monthly Spend: $5,000
Total Available Credit Limit: $20,000
Credit Utilization Ratio: 25% ($5,000/$20,000)
If one of your two cards is shut down, you now have a total available credit limit of $10,000. When you divide the $5,000 you charge each month by your $10,000 credit limit, your credit utilization is a whopping 50%.
Monthly Spend: $5,000
Total Available Credit Limit: $10,000
Credit Utilization Ratio: 50% ($5,000/$10,000)
Example 2
You have ten credit cards with credit limits of $10,000 each, for a total available credit limit of $100,000. You charge $5,000 per month. When you divide the $5,000 you have on your credit card at any one time by your $100,000 credit limit, you have a credit utilization rate of 5%.
Monthly Spend: $5,000
Total Available Credit Limit: $100,000
Credit Utilization Ratio: 5% ($5,000/$100,000)
If one of your ten cards gets shut down, you now have a total available credit limit of $90,000. When you divide the $5,000 on your credit card by the $90,000 credit limit, your credit utilization only increases to 5.5%.
Monthly Spend: $5,000
Total Available Credit Limit: $90,000
Credit Utilization Ratio: 5.5% ($5,000/$90,000)
All other things equal, the person in Example 2 doesn’t need to care that much about the closure, but the person in Example 1 should definitely be concerned. Moral of the story: the fewer cards you have, the more each one’s credit limit is doing for your score.
B2. Average Age of Accounts
Your credit score is also affected by the average age of your accounts. Credit card companies like to see old accounts when approving you for new cards. They don’t want customers who cycle through and close cards faster than the Kardashians burn through hair dye and lip gloss.
Important caveat: here’s the part most articles skip. A closed account in good standing keeps reporting and counting toward your average age of accounts for up to about 10 years after it’s closed. So the average-age hit below isn’t instant — it’s a delayed problem that shows up years down the road when that closed card finally drops off your report. The examples below illustrate the eventual effect, not what happens the morning after closure.
Example 1
You have two credit cards, one that is two years old and one that is ten years old. The average age of your accounts is six years. Years after the ten-year-old card is closed and finally falls off your report, the average age of your remaining accounts could drop toward two years.
Credit Card Ages Before Closure: 2 years old and 10 years old
Average Age of Accounts Before Closure: 6 years
Closure: 10 year old card is shut down (and eventually drops off your report)
Eventual Average Age of Your Accounts: roughly 2 years
Example 2
You have two credit cards, one that is two years old and one that is ten years old. The average age of your accounts is six years. If your credit card company closes the two-year-old card instead, the math barely budges — you keep the long history that actually matters.
Credit Card Ages Before Closure: 2 years old and 10 years old
Average Age of Accounts Before Closure: 6 years
Closure: 2 year old card is shut down
Average Age of Your Accounts: stays around 6 years (and trends up as your old card ages)
Bottom line: protecting your oldest cards matters most. If a closure is coming, you’d much rather lose a baby card than your decade-old anchor account.
4. How Often Should You Use Your Credit Card to Keep it Active?
So how do you actually prevent an inactivity closure? There are no guarantees — every company has different internal policies, and none of them publish the rules. But since most issuers don’t close a card until you’ve gone 12-plus months with no activity, using each card at least once every six months gives you a comfortable safety margin. If you’re really in it to win it, use them every three months. And it truly can be a single small purchase — a coffee, a tank of gas, a $0.99 song. The bank’s computer just needs to see one transaction; it doesn’t care that it was a pack of gum.
5. How to Keep Credit Cards Active to Prevent a Closure
After a few years of chasing sign-up bonuses, you’ll probably have enough cards to build a house that would put the Brady Bunch kids to shame. Each one needs the occasional swipe to survive. How are you supposed to keep track of all that? The trick is to set things up so the cards use themselves. Here’s how I keep mine breathing — and once you’ve got a system, you can read up on managing multiple credit cards without losing your mind.
A. Apply Different Cards to Different Recurring Bills
Set one credit card to automatically pay your utility bill and another to cover your car insurance. A recurring auto-pay charge counts as activity, so a single quiet card running your $14-a-month streaming subscription will quietly keep itself open all year with zero effort from you.
B. Apply Different Cards to Different Online Accounts
Save different credit cards as the default payment method at retailers you know you’ll periodically use — one for Amazon, one for the grocery pickup, one for the airline you book a couple of times a year. Each card gets exercised on its own schedule without you thinking about it.
C. Set a Calendar Reminder
Set a recurring calendar reminder every six months to sweep your statements and confirm every card got used at least once. Anything that’s been quiet gets a quick coffee-sized charge that afternoon.
Pro tip: Set every card to autopay in full and forget them. This way, you won’t have to keep track of multiple due dates, and you’ll never hand the bank interest just to keep a card active. Your credit score will take a serious hit from even one late payment, so autopay is the cheap insurance here.
6. Can the Card Be Reopened After a Credit Card Closure Due to Inactivity?
If your credit card is closed due to inactivity, can it be reopened? Maybe. You should try to call the company sooner rather than later — the closer to the closure date, the better your odds.
Whether it can be reopened largely depends on the company’s internal policies and the mood of the representative to whom you speak. I would try something like: “My bad. I really love this card, and by the way, I assume your hair looks lovely today even though I can’t see it.” I would follow that gem up with an offer to make a purchase right away.
If the company refuses to reopen it and you have more than one card with that same company, ask whether the credit limit from the closed card can be moved to a card that’s still open. That preserves your total available credit, which keeps your credit utilization ratio from spiking.
Note: Reopening (or replacing) a closed account may trigger a hard credit pull or even require a brand-new application — both of which ding your score a little, though far less than a hit to utilization or account age. And no, this isn’t an “inactivity fee” situation: standalone inactivity and dormancy fees were effectively banned by the CARD Act of 2009, so any modern bank quoting you one is making it up.
7. Do You Really Want it to Be Reopened?
Do you even want this card anymore? If you weren’t using it and it comes with an annual fee, seriously consider whether keeping it open is worth the cost. A card that charges you every year without delivering benefits that outweigh the fee is probably a pass — unless losing it would genuinely wreck your credit score. Before you decide, it’s worth knowing exactly when an annual fee is and isn’t worth paying; our breakdown of retention offers walks through the math.
Pro tip: Call your credit card company before they shut you down and ask for a retention offer or a product change to a no-annual-fee version of the card. A product change keeps the account — and its age — alive without the fee, which is usually the best of both worlds.
FAQ: Credit Card Inactivity
How long can a credit card go unused before it’s closed?
There’s no universal rule, but most issuers don’t close a card until it’s gone 12 or more months without activity — and many wait longer. Since none of them publish the exact threshold, treat “a year” as the danger zone and use each card before you get there.
Does carrying a balance keep a card active?
No. Issuers look for new transactions, not a balance you’re carrying over. Letting a balance ride just costs you interest while doing nothing to prove the card is “active.” Make a small new purchase instead and pay it off in full.
Does an inactive credit card hurt your credit score?
Sitting unused, no — an open card you don’t touch isn’t dragging your score down. The damage comes if the card gets closed, because that can raise your overall credit utilization and, eventually, shorten your average account age. Keep it open and occasionally used and you sidestep both.
Will I lose my points if my card is closed for inactivity?
Often, yes, for issuer-proprietary points like Chase Ultimate Rewards or Amex Membership Rewards — though some issuers offer a short grace window to redeem. Airline and hotel miles you’ve already transferred into your loyalty accounts are generally safe. If a card you rarely use is sitting on a big points balance, transfer or redeem those points now.
Do credit card companies have to warn you before closing your account?
No law requires it for an inactivity closure. Some issuers send a courtesy warning a few weeks out, and others close the account without a peep. Because you can’t rely on a heads-up, the safe move is to use each card on a schedule rather than wait for a letter that may never come.
Final Thoughts – How Often Should You Use Your Credit Card to Keep it Active?
A credit card shutdown due to inactivity isn’t the end of the world, but having a card and never using it isn’t ideal either. You want to maintain a good credit score so you can periodically open new miles and points credit cards and keep traveling at a discount.
So, how often should you use your credit card to keep it active? Shoot for a minimum of once every six months — quarterly if you want to sleep soundly — and let autopay subscriptions do the work for you. New to the game? Start with our picks for the best miles and points credit cards for beginners and learn the simplest ways to earn miles and points.
Collect miles and points to travel at a discount and make memories with your family. You will not regret it.
Really helpful advice to share. I had such a shock once when my bank deactivated my card as I wasn’t using it!
This is informative. This explains why the credit card company reduced my credit limit. I will start using and paying off every 2 to 3 months.
This is such good information. Definitely something to keep in mind
Thanks so much for sharing! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for lately and will definitely help me make some financial decisions this upcoming year.
Wow this is great information! It’s definitely made me rethink how I should be using my credit card – saving this for future reference. Thanks for all the indepth detail!
Interesting post. I didn’t realize that credit card companies could cancel you and take your points / miles. I use 2 cards and am sure to pay them off every month. I think that is the key.
great content. I would wish Europe is a bit more like this where one can use CC and get some points on it.
Great tips! I don’t think I have ever thought about the frequency to use cards.
I had no clue a credit card company could shut down a card you owned. Great info here! Thanks for sharing.
Cedit card companies goal is to scam you of all your money through high interest rates, late fees. Whether they alert you that they are going to close card due to inactivity, using your credit card wisely can help you save alot of money ?
This is perfect information on Credit cards. There is so much to know and you have broken it all down in a really simple way. Going to share with our children they will certainly learn a lot!
This is such crucial info! I especially liked your examples of credit utilization ratios. That’s something that I feel most people don’t think about when it comes to their credit.
This is such an interesting article about Credit card usage. I didn’t know so many things. Thanks for sharing.
This is such an interesting article! I actually didn’t know that a credit card company can shut down an account. I will certainly re-evaluate all my cards. Thanks for sharing!
Very interesting, thanks for the great info!
Just shared this with my hubby so we can be smart with our cards!
Adriane, what a very insightful blog! Super useful! ?
I have genuinely never given any thought to how often I needed to use my card to keep it active. Neither have I thought about it being canceled with notification from the company. Thank you for the enlightenment.