Credit Card Is It Active? – How to Check it Out

Credit Card Is It Active? Steps To Find Out. Using your credit card for purchases and other transactions must be open, active, and in good standing. Your credit card can become inactive and thereby unusable in certain circumstances.

Why Is My Credit Card Inactive

There are a few ways it can become inactive. However, if your card had not been in use for several months, or even years, the credit card issuer may deactivate it. Or, if you have fallen behind on your payments, your purchasing privileges may be suspended. It can also become inactive upon expiration with no issuance of a new card.

Any inactive credit card will be declined when cardholders try to use it. So to save yourself a little hassle and embarrassing circumstances of searching for a backup payment option, it is necessary to check and see if it is still active before using it.

What To Do If Your Card is not Active

Absolutely, if a credit card is inactive, the first thing to do is to contact your credit card issuer and make inquiries. You may have to catch up with a delinquent balance before you’ll be permitted to use your card again. Unfortunately, if it is completely closed, you may not be able to open it up again, especially if it was closed due to delinquency.

Contact Customer Service Center

It should be noted that the most easier method to clear up any issues and asked relevant questions relating to your credit card inactivity, is to contact the customer service center to speak with a representative. Call the number on the back of your credit card to make inquiries concerning your account status. If inactive, customer service can likely reactivate.

However, if you have lost or misplaced your card, therefore, you cannot access the customer service number on the back of your card. You can also get the customer service number from the issuer’s website and follow the procedure required of you the card issuer can send you a replacement credit card if your account is still active.

Try To Use It

Also, if you don’t want to contact customer service, you can try using your credit card to make purchases thereby seeing your card status. A declined card is a sign that such a card is not active. Although it also means many other things, such as the card being expired or you’ve reached your credit limits.

Check Your Credit Report

Finally, your Credit Card seems to be the final point to check up your account status. Credit Report gives you an idea about your credit card status. Credit card issuers generally report credit card statuses to the Credit bureau once per month.

If your credit card is closed, your credit report will probably reflect that. It won’t, however, tell you the reason for your account closure. Just contact your credit card issuer to get the proper and adequate information.

Check Your Balance and Available Credit

Once you’ve confirmed that your credit card is still active, you need to check to know how much you still have available in the account. This enables you to know your account balance before proceeding to make purchases. This way you’ll be sure of not exceeding your credit limit.

Notwithstanding, you’re still responsible for making regular minimum payments on your balance, even if your credit card is inactive. Missing your credit card payments has serious consequences such as late fees charges and damage to your credit score.