I’m doing my semi-annual charge a small purchase to each of my “back of the wallet” cards. If I pay them before the statement date (so I don’t forget about them and keep my utilization lowest) will they still show as active?
The charge will generate a statement. When you pay it shouldn’t have any adverse effect.
I have 4 of the kind of cards you’re talking about. I used to pull them out every 6 months and make small purchases with them also (so they don’t get canceled). A few years ago I decided to automate the process. I found 4 very small recurring charges I had (cloud storage, subscriptions, etc). I pay each of them with one of those cards. Plus, I set those cards to “auto pay” so I don’t have to worry about them. I don’t worry about paying those cards before the statement end date because those small amounts have almost no effect on my utilization, a small fraction of 1%.
I am a bit of a credit score nerd, so I do pay off my frequently used cards before the statement end date. It’s more of a game to me than a necessity. (My credit score hovers around 835.)
You’re spending an awful lot of effort chasing a credit score. Are you sure it’s worth it? I’ve never done any of that stuff–just paid my bills and used credit when I needed it. The credit score takes care of itself.
Not a credit score issue for me. I’d just rather pay for what I spend this month with this month’s money. Whatever’s left at the end of the month is a second savings deposit for the month because everything I’ve spent is paid. Works quite well for me.
I was referring to keeping a bunch of otherwise-useless credit cards open and making periodic charges on each one.
It may be useless. Who knows? I know that Clark does this to some degree. Also, it’s likely everyone does something that some other people think is useless, or a waste of time. I obsessed a little too much about my credit score, even though I know it’s unnecessary. My score would be fine regardless. It’s just something I like to do. It’s a bit of a game.