Why your credit cards shouldn't retire when you do

When her car trouble began, Beverly Dobratz, 70, assumed that years of responsible credit usage would qualify her for a new car loan with a low interest rate.

[...] the salesman checked her credit and learned that she hadn't made any purchases with it in 10 years; she preferred to pay with cash or her debit card.

About one-third (34 percent) of American baby boomers risk damaging their credit scores in retirement by reducing or eliminating their use of credit cards, according to a survey by TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus that gather information used to calculate the scores.

Using credit cards for small purchases keeps your credit active , says Heather Battison, a vice president at TransUnion.

Keeping credit cards active doesn't mean running up debt.

Some independent living facilities require a pre-admission credit check, the way a landlord might run a credit check before renting an apartment.

"All of the furniture that he had in his home was too big and we all of a sudden needed to completely furnish this apartment," she says.

Because he didn't use his credit card as often, we ran into some issues there.