Credit Card question
 

Not sure if this should be here, or somewhere else, so if it needs to be moved, I understand.

In my quest to have a clean kitchen, I found a new credit card that I must have received back in January 2007. It is a credit card I currently hold, but never use, so I didn't call in to activate it.

What are the repercussions for not activating it? Would it be better to cancel it? I am pretty sure it has a zero balance.

It's on your credit report...I'd cut it up, tell them you're closing it out so it can be removed.

I got a Citi card solely for a big purchase. It had the highest credit limit of all of my cards, but I was saving it for that big purchase. I kept it unactivated with the sticker on it and all for like 6 months easily. My accounts stayed open, I just never received any invoices. Finally, I activated it, because people told me that it could be closed if I didn't at least put some money on it and let it sit. So I put $15 on the card from the grocery store, and eventually $15 ended up to be $9000, and I never got what I intended to get and now I can't...

There are no credit-score repurcussions for not activating it. You might lose the account, though, if that is important to you.

If you don't need the card, close the account. But inform the credit card company that YOU want to close it. From what I understand, it is better for your credit score if it is shown that the account was closed by request of the card holder. When we rid ourselves of the burden of those damn things, my wife went as far as to send letters stating that we wished to have the accounts closed.

Keep your older cards even if you are not using them, since length of having the card goes to your credit score.

Yeah. I have a credit protection service that shows your credit score and all kinds of things. It also allows you to "what if" for different scenarios to see the impact on your score. I have several old accounts never closed (which you see when you have a service like this or get a copy of your credit report) so I did a what if I closed the accounts. Doing this would have actually lowered my score , primarily since it was credit that I'm not using. I have, however, heard that too much available credit also isn't good. I think that may be if your income is on the lower end of things.

You're better off borrowing from a bank with a fixed rate loan than a credit card. Borrowing with a credit card is legal loan sharking!