What do you do with your cards after meeting the minimum spend?
 

So you've done a couple AORs at this point. You've got a great cache of miles & points, and a dozen cards sitting around. What do you do as far as using them?

Obviously, you'll have a favorite card or two for everyday purchases, and probably some with good category bonuses. But what about those cards that really do nothing for you? Do you toss them in a drawer, and never touch them again? Do you use them for a small purchase or two every month, to keep them active? Do you rotate them in and out of your wallet regularly, to put a decent bit of spend on them? Or do you have a different strategy for keeping them active?

I personally do my best to keep them active in one way or another, so I don't give the impression that I'm just churning cards. I know that at some point in my not-too-distant future, I'll be talking to someone on a reconsideration line, and they'll be reviewing my full history of spending with their bank. There's nothing like a portfolio full of cards that were never used after meeting the minimum spend to throw up red flags.

I closed my Citi AA Ex, I have no use for it. I don't want to keep it alive just to pay the annual fee. Citi refused to wavier the annual fee like Amex does so that's that with Citi. I'm trying my best to find another Citi card that fits my lifestyle but they all seem travel based. I have SPG which transfers to airlines I use.

If they are a no annual fee card I would keep it, but this one wasn't.

I'm new to this but I'm taking the same approach as you are and trying to rotate cards I have for expenses that don't qualify for any of the >1% bonuses so it looks like I'm using all of them.

Honestly, from what I've read on here and other places, I don't think it really matters after a while because if you've opened and closed enough cards, it'll be obvious what you're doing regardless of the spending on each. It makes me feel better about it for now anyway.

I feel that I probably should start using them more often for the purposes of what you said, but never have the patience to do it. What I do like to use some of my cards for is setting up the automatic expenses on a few cards I want to make sure stay active: Netflix, Spotify, etc. I will try to put one additional spend on the card a month before canceling it just to extend out my points expiration as long as possible.

Recent discussions:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...have-open.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...shut-down.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...nus-again.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...lications.html

I let them sit dormant, and sometimes it pays off. I have gotten some 5-10K point offers for minimal spend. Unless there is an annual fee, I let them gather dust.

Depends on the card and the earning rates. I always keep a card open and put some spend on it if it has no AF, if it has an AF I call retention and try to get it waived/decent bonus. I don't sock drawer cards, I like to build small relationships with each issuer which makes it much easier when I apply for a new card.