- We have a Fidelity Cash Management account, with my wife and I each having an associated debit/ATM card. The main thing this account is used for is to provide emergency ATM cash when travelling. In fact I used my card in May of last year while in Germany to pull some euros from a local ATM. My wife, though, has never used her card since it was issued. Last week, she received a letter from Fidelity, informing her that, due to inactivity on her card, when the cards hit their expiration date in September, rather than them issuing her a new card, they were going to close her card altogether (even though I had used my card, which is on the same account, last May). She was given the option to call and request that they keep the card active, which we did.
- We have a Capital One Visa (zero foreign transaction fee) which is used for expenses while abroad. It was issued with a $30,000 credit limit. A few months ago, I received a letter from Capital One, telling me that they were lowering our credit limit to $10,000. The reasons given were:
- Current account(s) not used enough for assigned credit limit(s)
- Balances on non-Capital One revolving trade(s) are too low
(I'm wondering now if it would make sense to set up some sort of rolling schedule for spending a few dollars on each of our less-used cards, just to keep them active.)
Has anyone else here had similar experiences? Is this just normal for little-used cards?
As a secondary thought, any ideas as to what lowering the CapOne credit limit from $30,000 to $10,000 might do to our credit score?