An unused credit card from any major US issuer can't be charged a dormancy fee — federal law has prohibited that since 2009. The real cost of letting a card go dormant isn't a fee at all. It's the closure that follows, and the credit-score damage that comes with it.

The short answer

No US bank charges a dormancy or inactivity fee on consumer credit cards. The CARD Act of 2009 made them illegal. But your dormant card will still get closed — usually without warning — and that's the cost worth preventing.

See how to prevent the closure → or jump to pricing

The CARD Act made dormancy fees illegal in 2009

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 added 15 U.S.C. § 1637, which prohibits issuers from charging a fee triggered by non-use of a credit card. The same law banned monthly "service" or "maintenance" fees that issuers might use as a workaround. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) enforces it.

Before 2009, dormancy fees were a real revenue line — typically $10–25 per year on accounts that had gone six or twelve months without a posted transaction. On any standard US consumer credit card today, that fee can't legally exist.

The law protects you from the fee. Nothing protects you from the closure. ActiveCred runs a tiny authorized charge on every linked card monthly — issuers always see recent activity. Plans from $0.99/mo.
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The major US issuers: where they stand

As of 2026, none of the six largest US issuers charge a fee specifically for inactivity:

  • Chase — no inactivity fee. Premium cards (Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Ink) charge annual fees regardless of use.
  • American Express — no inactivity fee. Annual fees on Gold, Platinum, and Delta cards bill on a fixed cycle.
  • Capital One — no inactivity fee. Most consumer cards (Venture, Quicksilver, Savor) have no annual fee at all.
  • Discover — no inactivity fee. No Discover consumer cards charge an annual fee.
  • Citi — no inactivity fee. Premium and cobranded cards (AAdvantage, Costco) follow standard annual-fee schedules.
  • Bank of America — no inactivity fee. Premium Rewards and Travel Rewards Elite charge annual fees.

If you see a charge on a dormant card from any of these issuers, it's almost certainly an annual fee, a foreign-transaction fee on an old purchase, or fraud — not dormancy.

The narrow exceptions

Three categories sit outside the CARD Act's protection:

Annual fees on premium cards. An annual fee isn't a dormancy fee — it bills regardless of use. The Sapphire Reserve still charges $550 if it sits in your drawer for a year.

Prepaid and gift cards. The CARD Act's inactivity-fee ban applies to credit cards. Stored-value and prepaid cards follow separate rules; some charge monthly service fees after 12 months of inactivity.

Cards from non-US banks. US federal law doesn't reach foreign-issued cards. UK, EU, and Canadian issuers can charge inactivity fees if their local law allows it.

Store-branded credit cards (Macy's, Target REDcard, Kohl's Charge) follow the same no-inactivity-fee rule even when operated by Comenity or Synchrony — they're still consumer credit cards under federal law.

The real penalty: closure

If issuers can't charge a fee, they skip straight to the bigger move: closing the account. An open card costs the bank regulatory capital, fraud monitoring, and statement delivery — all without earning interchange. Closing is the cheaper option.

That decision costs you more than any $20 fee would have. A closed card:

  • Cuts your total available credit, raising utilization across remaining cards
  • Eventually drops out of your average account age (closed accounts stay on your report for 10 years, then disappear)
  • Removes a slot from your credit mix if it was a unique account type
  • Triggers a credit-report update visible to lenders on your next application

FICO impact varies — some people drop 10–30 points after one closure, others barely notice. The trend is consistent: dormancy closure is the most common reason healthy accounts get cut, and it's bad for credit profiles.

How to avoid the closure

The protection against the fee is already in federal law. The protection against the closure is one posted transaction every few months. A $1 charge resets the inactivity clock identically to a $500 charge.

  1. Put a small recurring subscription on each unused card. $1–15/month — streaming, cloud storage, anything you'd pay for anyway. Set autopay to clear the balance.
  2. Calendar a manual charge every 90 days. Buy a coffee, pay it off, repeat.
  3. Use an automated activity tool. A service that runs tiny authorized charges on each linked card on a schedule — no subscription juggling. ActiveCred runs $0.99–$4.99/mo for 1–20 cards.

Bottom line

If you're searching dormancy fees because you're worried the bank is silently charging you for an unused card: stop worrying. Federal law has your back on the fee. What you should be watching is whether the bank is going to close that card — because that's the actual cost of dormancy, and it's much higher than any fee would have been.