I just opened a hotel points cc, travel a bunch for work so it makes sense. Does it affect my credit at all (good or bad) if I keep my older cc open but never put anything on it? Does it make sense to put something small on it every month? No balances and always pay it off on time.

Would like to know as well, I did the same thing just recently and really have no reason for the older credit card

The average time of your credit cards being open is one factor. If you close an old one you will take a small hit, less than 20 points I would imagine depending on your overall score.

It makes no different if you use THAT card or not.

What matters is the % of available credit used. Example, if you carry a balance of 2500 each on 2 cards with a limit of 5000 each, that's the same as a balance of 5000 on 1 card with a 10000 limit. Both situations are 50% credit utilization.

As Fella said, one of the factors in your score is the average age of credit and the benchmark for "excellent" is 9+ years...so you don't want to close old accounts, even if you never use them.

Unless you rec'd the card from an institution you have your other card with, they probably did a hard pull (credit check) which will cost you a few points for a few years...cost of doing business.

More importantly, having too FEW credit accounts is a negative factor in your credit score. Best thing for your credit is to have many, many accounts open, and owe little or nothing on any of them.

Yep, this and as the poster a few posts above said, % of available credit.

My credit score dropped just below 800 for the first time because I had a charge (medical) that took 40% of the available credit of that card, even though there was ample buffer with all my other cards.  Instant 40 pt. drop.  I paid the balance off, like I do every month, but have to wait three more days to see if my credit score rebounded some.