Keeping one credit card for a long time is supposed to have a positive effect on your credit score. However, that’s only if your credit card company doesn’t cancel your card. A new trend has developed that has seen credit card companies cancel old, unused cards. In fact, credit card companies are shutting down credit cards without warning for a number of reasons. If you are amassing too much debt, missing payments, or just not using your card at all, your card may get cancelled.
Of course, you could just cancel an old card yourself, but canceling a card almost invariably harms your credit score. If you prefer one card’s benefits over another, you may not feel obligated to use an old card, but you’ll need to dust the old card off to make your credit card company happy. Fortunately, this can be done with one easy trick. Try spreading your pre-authorized and/or recurring payments among all of your cards. This way you can keep your credit card company from giving you a nasty surprise. Not only that, but you can spread your expenses around and not have to worry about one particular card reaching your credit limit.
If you need another reason to stop your old card from getting closed, consider your credit score and credit limit. Having more credit cards available can increase your total credit limit and reduce your balance-to-limit ratio. This can have a positive effect on your credit score.
