What's Length of Credit History?
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If I Don’t Activate a Credit Card, Does It Affect My Credit?
4 min read
Last Updated: June 24, 2025
Key Takeaways
- Activating a credit card allows a person to use it.
- You usually have 45-60 days to activate a new credit card.
- Not activating may affect your credit score.
Consider this scenario: You apply for a credit card, get approved, and the physical card arrives a few days later. But you forget to activate it or have second thoughts about activating it and put it off.
What happens if you decide to hold off on activating the card until you’re sure you want to use it? Does an unused credit card affect your credit score, even if you don’t technically activate it or make any purchases with it?
The simple answer is yes.
Simply applying for credit may impact your credit score
First, even though you need to activate the card in order to make purchases with it, the act of activating a credit card doesn’t have an effect on your credit score.
By going through the process of applying for a new credit card and opening the new account, you’ve already been approved for a certain credit limit. That’s true even if you never activate the card.
The key action that affects your credit score is applying for that card in the first place. Credit card companies will pull your credit history during the application process, which is known as a hard inquiry. These type of inquiries only appear when there is new credit that has been applied for and may have an impact on your credit in the interim.
Never activating your card may have consequences
If you don’t activate your card, there are a few things to watch out for that could sneak up on you.
What if you didn’t activate your card as soon as you got it?
If you don’t activate a credit card within a certain time, the card issuer may close your account and report it to a credit bureau as “closed by credit grantor.” This could have a negative impact on your credit by increasing your credit utilization ratio, shortening your credit history, or reducing your credit mix.
How long do you have to activate a credit card?
Your card issuer may contact you if you haven’t activated your card after a certain amount of time to determine if you received it. This usually happens after 45 to 60 days, depending on the issuer.
If you wait longer than that, you may need to request a new card. If you wait even longer than that, card issuers typically close accounts that aren’t used within a certain time period.
What happens if you never activate a credit card?
If you get a card with an annual fee, you risk missing this payment if you never activate your card. The fee is often charged on your first credit card bill and repeats annually on the anniversary of your account opening. Missing it or making a late payment toward it can negatively affect your credit score.
Responsible use is beneficial
Once you have the new credit card, any impact on your credit score from applying for the new credit account has already occurred.
In many cases, it’s how you use a credit card that really matters.
Using your credit card responsibly to make occasional small purchases and paying the bill on time and in full can help you build credit without incurring interest charges on purchases1.
Closing your new credit card account might actually hurt your credit score, because it would reduce your total available credit and thus raise your credit utilization ratio.
You may wish to cancel your new credit card if you doubt whether you want to use it. However, if you are certain that you will be able to use your new credit card responsibly and make payments on time, you may activate it online, over the phone, or through the mobile app.
The bottom line
Instead of looking at an un-activated credit card as a possible threat to your credit score, think of the potential to use the card to help build your credit1. The credit card issuer has already decided that you’re creditworthy enough to receive the new card.
As long as you can use your new credit limit responsibly, your new card can be a source of convenient spending, cash flow management, and can even help you build your credit over time.
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Build credit with responsible use: Many factors affect your credit, such as payment history and amount of credit extended and used. Using your credit responsibly may help you build good credit.
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