Literally anything you were gonna buy anyway.
superchat/thanks someone you like on youtube a couple of dollars 
Aldi’s self checkout lets you split payments across multiple cards. Just charge a couple of cents per card and you’re good to go!
I’ve always just done a $1 or $2 Amazon gift card reload on the dozen or so cards that I rarely use.
Amazon gift card I think you can get for $5 easy quick doesn’t require much thought
> I have several cards that I no longer use, but want to keep open for credit score reasons.
What “credit score reasons” are you referring to? Many believe the myth that aging metrics change when you close accounts, which is not the case. The strongest credit profiles are built upon 3+ bank cards, so I never recommend dropping below 3. I don’t know how many you have, but if closing a few would keep you at 3+ you can feel free to do so.
As far as small purchases, you can swipe as many cards as you want at self checkouts. You can run (say) 5 different cards for $1 each, then put the balance on the “real” card you would have used at the end.
@Brooke
Keeping several open cards with $0 balance helps your credit scores. A lot of people believe credit utilization is only your total balance divided by total credit limits, but there are many different metrics scores also consider such as per-account utilization, % of accounts reporting a balance, etc, etc.
If you have 2 credit cards and they both report a $5 balance you might get dinged for “too many accoutns with a balance”
Many people with thin credit files (too few accounts) will see a message such as “too few accounts paid as agreed.” It doesn’t necessarily mean there are accounts that aren’t paid as agreed, just too few accounts in general.
@Caelan
Some of what you said is true, but some of it is misunderstood. One of the reasons 3+ cards is recommended is because it will eliminate the “too many accounts with a balance” Fico negative reason code when AZEO implementation occurs if one needs to optimize their Fico scores. At all other times outside of important applications, Fico scores do not matter at all, so one doesn’t need cards sitting around at $0 balances to “help” their credit scores.
If you have 2 credit cards and even one reports a non-zero balance, you’d incur the “too many accounts with a balance” negative reason code and penalty.
When you close accounts in good standing, they remain as “paid as agreed” accounts. You don’t lose accounts “paid as agreed” when you close cards. Just like aging metrics, payment history metrics and so on BOTH open and closed accounts are considered by the algorithm. If one has too few accounts paid as agreed, it means they need more paid as agreed accounts on their file. Closing existing accounts doesn’t change that.
@Brooke
Closed accounts will disappear after 10 years. And keeping it open lowers your utilization.
Mike said:
@Brooke
Closed accounts will disappear after 10 years. And keeping it open lowers your utilization.
Yes, and in 10 years all of your other accounts are a decade older so it’s usually a non event - plus, one is presumably adding other accounts over that decade as well.
Keeping it open may lower utilization, but if it’s a significant amount all that means is your existing limits aren’t large enough so growing them should be the goal. Utilization doesn’t “build” credit though nor are credit limits a Fico scoring factor; one can easily manipulate utilization for scoring purposes if need be. It’s not a reason to keep unnecessary or useless accounts open.
This has already been discussed at length: Share Your Tips For Meeting Small $1 Spend Transactions - Doctor Of Credit
In this situation myself. My first card is near useless now but has no AF. So trying to think of something to use it on 1-2x a year as someone who has absolutely no subscriptions.
Also churning a SUB for a new card atm and by next year, that card will likely see very little use. Curious to read the answers to this question.
I have one of my “inactive” cards as the primary card for my toll tag. I rarely commute and incur tolls, so this ends up charging the card. $25 a couple times/year.
It’s set to auto pay statement balance shortly before the due date so I don’t worry about it.
I get a cup of coffee or put a streaming service on it, usually the latter option since it automatically repeats monthly. I prefer the smaller monthly recurring expense so I don’t have to remember to repeat the expense. Plus my other cards tend to have better percentage of points for restaurant purchases like coffee.
I just load up my Amazon balance
Some charities/non-profits have recurring donation options that you can set to a small amount.
Utility company 50 cents reload
Honestly, if you don’t use them, just close them. Having open-ended and available credit stands to create more issues at the time of any credit application. Only keep open those you use most and pay them in full monthly. While cards are good for credit, installment loans (auto and mortgage loans) is where you get real bang for your buck.
Leave them in your sock drawer, set each one to pay one of your smaller monthly bills or subscriptions, set it to autopay from your checking, and forget about it forever.
Parking meters