If they are deactivated, the credit card companies will close the accounts and will probably report them a close accounts. I could be wrong but here is Equifax's toll free number to find out listed below. I watch Clark Howard in the United States and he warns people not to let their card to deactivate because it will affect their score.

1-866-828-5961

What I meant is... instead of the accounts still showing as open... If they're closed then that will affect your credit score differently.

I'm pretty sure that the card companies will report them to equifax as deactivated

If they closed your accounts, it might drag down your score.

I had a drawer full of credit cards... many of which I haven't used for years.
I had a Moores credit card, Office Depot credit card and HBC / Zellers credit card... I visited each store today to inquire whether these cards were still cards were still active or not.

In all three cases, these cards were deactivated because of lack of use. The same thing happened to my Future Shop credit card, and my Brick credit card.

That's several thousands of dollars worth of credit lines that were deactivated because I didn't use them..

The only question I've got is: were these properly dealt with and noted as closed on my credit reports? I guess I'll have to pull my equifax report and see.