Use Cards Occasionally Even if You Don't Need To

Keeping a credit card account open, even if you don’t use it, can help your credit score more than closing the account. But you will need to use the card occasionally to keep the account open. To make it easy, consider setting up a regular expense on a card you want to keep for emergencies but don’t otherwise want to use, such as for a monthly subscription, to pay a recurring expense, or for regular online charges. Then simply pay the balance in full each month. That way you won’t pay interest on the charges, you’ll keep the account open for emergencies, and your credit rating will stay high since you will continue to receive positive entries for on-time payments.