# What if you don't activate a credit card?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-you-dont-activate-a-credit-card/1012708>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 8, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-you-dont-activate-a-credit-card/1012708 "2025-01-08T02:17:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-you-dont-activate-a-credit-card/1012708/1 "2025-01-08T02:17:05Z")

</div>

Last June, I tried to cancel a CC. The woman I spoke to basically refused and I told her to commit an impossible act and hung up, knowing it expired in Oct. A replacement came and I never activated it. Nonetheless they accepted a (recurring) charge. Am I responsible? The charge was for a newspaper that I never read and my wife almost never does and I would be happy to drop it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-you-dont-activate-a-credit-card/1012708/2 "2025-01-08T02:38:13Z")

</div>

The activation bit is mostly a farce. Recurring charges keep getting applied and in the modern world the card just requires a PIN with the first use before you can use tap.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2025, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-you-dont-activate-a-credit-card/1012708/3 "2025-01-08T04:05:49Z")

</div>

I’ve had cards that I stopped using, and never bothered to cancel. Eventually I’d get an updated card, and I’d never bother to activate it, because I never used it. Three things have happened.

- Nothing, they send me a new card every four years, and I completely ignore it.
- They send me another new card after a year or so with a note saying, “you never activated the last one we sent, maybe you misplaced it, so here is another one, please start using it.”
- After a few years or so they send me a letter saying the account was closed for being inactive.