How the Journal is sourced
Every figure in the ActiveCred Journal should trace back to something a reader can check. Closure windows come from cardholder reports, and the Journal labels them as reports, never as policy.
- Comparisons quote each company’s own site, dated and linked.
- Sources and dates are published in a data file.
- Mistakes are corrected in place, and the updated date changes.
- The free methods are covered too, with when they are enough.
What the Journal covers
One subject: credit cards that go unused, why banks close them, and what a closure does to a credit file. The Journal does not give general credit, investment or legal advice, and nothing in it is a promise about any score.
Where the figures come from
Four kinds of source qualify:
- A regulation
- A bank's own published terms
- The scoring weights FICO publishes
- A dated report from cardholders
No US card issuer publishes how long it lets a card sit unused. So the closure windows in the Journal and the inactivity checker are cardholder reports, mainly those collected by Doctor of Credit, and are labeled as reports, never as policy.
The closure data is published as a data file, with each figure's source and the date it was checked, so anyone can see what a claim rests on.
Correcting mistakes
When a claim turns out to be wrong, it is corrected in place and the article's updated date changes. Corrections can be suggested through the contact form.
The Journal said that Citi and Bank of America close unused cards after six months. That statement was found to have no source. The reports put both at two years or more, and every page that repeated it was corrected.
Comparisons with other services
The comparison pages state only what each company publishes on its own website, with the date it was read and a link to check. They make no claims about the quality of other services, and they say where ActiveCred costs more.
Who writes it
The Journal is published by ActiveCred. Its founder built a credit file from nothing, starting with a first card limit of $200. Every article follows the same house style and the sourcing rules above.
ActiveCred sells the service the Journal sometimes recommends. The Journal also explains the free ways to get the same result, and says when they are enough.