Services that keep credit cards active, compared
Five services keep unused cards open with a small charge on a schedule. Choose how many cards and how often, and see what each would cost in a year.
What does it cost to keep my cards open?
Yearly cost for 5 cards, each charged once a quarter. Cheapest first.
ActiveCred is the cheapest here, $7.01 a year less than Keep My Credit Card.
Rank 1ActiveCredUsOptimizer plan + $0.50 a charge$12.99a year
- Optimizer plan, for 4 to 6 cards: $2.99 a year
- 5 cards × 4 charges a year = 20 charges at $0.50: $10.00
- Total: $2.99 + $10.00 = $12.99 a year
Source: activecred.it/#pricing. ActiveCred’s own prices on November 14, 2026.
Rank 2Keep My Credit Card$1 per charge per card$20.00a year
- $1 per charge per card
- 5 cards × 4 charges a year = 20 charges at $1.00
- Total: $20.00 a year
Source: keepmycreditcard.com. Read from the company’s site on November 14, 2026.
Rank 3CredicatedGold plan, 15% off$21.25a year
- Gold plan: $1.25 a quarter per card, $5.00 a year
- 5 cards × $5.00 = $25.00
- Multi-card discount, 15% at 5 cards or more: less $3.75
- Total: $21.25 a year
Not counted: the MULTI plan, $0.59 a charge, which is for bank accounts that require a number of debit transactions each month.
Source: credicated.com. Read from the company’s site on November 14, 2026.
Recurring TransactionMonthly onlyNot offered
- Not offered at this frequency. Recurring Transaction charges once a month only.
Source: recurringtransaction.com. Read from the company’s site on November 14, 2026.
KeepCreditCard
OpenNo quarterly plan Not offered- Not offered at this frequency. KeepCreditCardOpen charges yearly, every six months or monthly, or once.
Source: keepcreditcardopen.com. Read from the company’s site on November 14, 2026.
Prices read from each company's website on November 14, 2026; each may have changed since. Open a row for the arithmetic and the source, or see how the figures are worked out.
Or do it by hand, for free
Banks close credit cards that go unused, and a small charge every so often prevents it. You can make that charge yourself for free, and the free methods work well for a card or two.
For more cards, the five services above do it for you. They charge between 50 cents and $1.49 a time. They differ most in how they price several cards and how often they charge.
How the five differ
Price
- ActiveCred
- $0.99 to $4.99 a year by number of cards, plus a $0.50 activity charge on each card each time it runs
- Credicated
- $1.25 a year per card (Silver, one charge a year), $1.25 a quarter (Gold), $0.99 a month (Platinum), or $0.59 a charge (MULTI, for frequent charges)
- Keep My Credit Card
- $1 per charge per card
- Recurring Transaction
- $1.49 a month per card
- KeepCreditCardOpen
- $0.99, $1.99, $2.99 or $9.99 per charge per card, or a one-time charge
Schedule
- ActiveCred
- By default matched to each card's bank, every 3 to 12 months; any schedule from weekly to once a year, set per card
- Credicated
- Yearly, quarterly or monthly, chosen by plan
- Keep My Credit Card
- Yearly, quarterly or monthly, set per card
- Recurring Transaction
- Monthly
- KeepCreditCardOpen
- Yearly, every six months or monthly, or one-time
Several cards
- ActiveCred
- One plan covers 1 to 20 cards
- Credicated
- One subscription per card. Discounts of 15% at 5 cards, 25% at 15 and 40% at 45 on the Silver, Gold and Platinum plans
- Keep My Credit Card
- One $1 subscription per card
- Recurring Transaction
- Priced per card; a free account to sign up
- KeepCreditCardOpen
- One subscription per card
Card details
- ActiveCred
- Card entered through Stripe; ActiveCred stores a token, never the number
- Credicated
- Card entered through a Shopify checkout; Credicated says it never sees or stores the number
- Keep My Credit Card
- A Stripe checkout for each card
- Recurring Transaction
- Not stated on the home page
- KeepCreditCardOpen
- Payments processed by Stripe; it says card details never reach its servers
Managing it
- ActiveCred
- A dashboard (Pulse) that shows every card, its schedule and its history; a demo to try first
- Credicated
- A "Manage My Subscriptions" page on its store
- Keep My Credit Card
- A dashboard that lists cards by nickname and their activity
- Recurring Transaction
- An account on its site
- KeepCreditCardOpen
- A "Manage Subscriptions" page
Also offers
- ActiveCred
- A free inactivity checker and sourced issuer closure data
- Credicated
- A MULTI plan for bank accounts that require a number of debit transactions each month
- Keep My Credit Card
- Guides for keeping US cards open while living abroad
- Recurring Transaction
- Security and editorial-policy pages, and a library of articles
- KeepCreditCardOpen
- A decision guide on whether to keep an old card open
How often a card needs a charge
No US bank publishes its limit. The shortest closure cardholders report is about 10 months (Wells Fargo); most fall between 12 and 24 months, and Citi and Bank of America are reported at two years or more.
A yearly charge is enough at some banks and cuts it fine at others. A quarterly one is safe at all of them. The inactivity checker gives the reported window bank by bank.
Which to choose
- One card, one charge a year, lowest sticker price: KeepCreditCardOpen ($0.99) or Keep My Credit Card ($1).
- A charge every month: Credicated Platinum ($0.99) or Recurring Transaction ($1.49).
- Debit transactions for a high-interest checking account: Credicated's MULTI plan.
- Several cards from several banks, on one plan, with a dashboard: ActiveCred, the cheapest of the five at a quarterly or monthly charge for any number of cards, and at a yearly charge from 9 cards up.
How these figures are worked out
Prices and features were read from each company's public website on November 14, 2026. Each may have changed since, so follow the links to check.
Each figure multiplies the service's published price by the number of charges and cards, including any plan fee and the multi-card discount Credicated advertises. ActiveCred's figures use the smallest plan that fits the number of cards. "Not offered" means the service has no plan at that frequency.
Websites: Credicated, Keep My Credit Card, Recurring Transaction, KeepCreditCardOpen.
Each service against ActiveCred
Questions
What services keep credit cards active automatically?
Five services run small scheduled charges on unused cards so banks do not close them: ActiveCred, Credicated, Keep My Credit Card, Recurring Transaction and KeepCreditCardOpen. Prices run from 50 cents to $1.49 a charge.
What is the cheapest way to keep several credit cards active?
For 20 cards charged once a quarter, ActiveCred costs $44.99 a year, against $80.00 for Keep My Credit Card and $75.00 for Credicated Gold with its discount. Doing it by hand with small purchases is free.
Which service is cheapest for one card?
It depends on how often the card is charged. At one charge a year, KeepCreditCardOpen ($0.99) and Keep My Credit Card ($1.00) cost less than ActiveCred ($1.49). At one charge a quarter, ActiveCred costs $2.99 a year, against $4.00 for Keep My Credit Card and $5.00 for Credicated; the other two have no quarterly plan.
How often does a credit card need a charge to stay open?
No US bank publishes its limit. The shortest closure cardholders report is about 10 months, at Wells Fargo; most fall between 12 and 24 months, and Citi and Bank of America are reported at two years or more. A charge once a quarter stays inside every reported window.
What does ActiveCred cost?
Plans cost $0.99 to $4.99 a year for 1 to 20 cards, plus a $0.50 activity charge on a card each time it is charged. By default each card is charged as often as its bank requires, every 3 to 12 months. You can cancel in Settings at any time, and a cancellation in the first hour is refunded in full.
See ActiveCred with sample cards before deciding
Plans cost $0.99 to $4.99 a year for 1 to 20 cards, plus a $0.50 activity charge on a card each time it is charged. By default each card is charged as often as its bank requires, every 3 to 12 months. Cancel in Settings at any time; a cancellation in the first hour is refunded in full.
- No SSN and no credit check
- No bank login or access to your accounts
- Card held by Stripe; ActiveCred keeps a token
- Cancel online in Settings, at any time