MikeOWave

I believe that as far as your FICO goes, it will negatively affect your average length of accounts open, but your payment history with the old card will still be on your credit reports and affect your credit (hopefully positively!) for 7 years. As far as Amex is concerned, you will still see "Member since 1999", especially if you cancel the old card after you open the new one. Personally, I would take the hit of a few points and cancel and then try to keep the everyday card and another no fee card open forever. Someone else might disagree. If you do cancel it, let us know what happens to your score. (I'm betting not much...I might be wrong!)

http://www.myfico.com/crediteducatio...yourscore.aspx

sharka

Yup, it sucks as Amex have been changing so many rules lately that I can't keep track. No more sign on bonus for repeat cards, No downgrading of cards to other no fee cards etc.
I have not read any changes with credit history with Amex. Although I'm fairly certain Amex still keeps the original date for credit history based on your 1st acct, Truth is I'm no longer 100% sure if thats true anymore with Amex. Anyone read anything different can chime in.
Otherwise sign up for one of the Amex no fee cards and they should automatically base the card history from your original card 15 yrs ago keeping your credit history alive.
Only thing I won't do is cancel your old card until AFTER you are approved for the new card just in case.

MikeOWave

I cancelled a Business Gold and got an Everyday Card and can confirm that on my account it kept the same date on the "Amex Customer Since ..." date. There was also no problem with keeping my Member Rewards.

pssteve

Did you have to take any action to keep your points or did Amex automatically link the 2 accounts?

MikeOWave

They autolinked for both me and my mom's accounts before the physical cards even arrived. It's easy.

mia

In the USA linking new cards to the established Membership Rewards account is the norm, eve in you do not identify yourself as an existing cardholder during the application process. It is simplicity itself to verify that the card has been added to the same account, there is no need to wait until any points have been earned or posted, and if it hasn't happened customer service can fix it.

Happy

UPDATE on the missing 10K bonus

So the 2nd statement closed, there is still no trace of the bonus. Since it has been already 9 weeks after meeting spend, passed the AMEX party line of 6 to 8 week wait, I called last Thursday. A Philippines based rep said he would open an investigation. I also replied to a previous message which the rep confirmed the eligibility among other things, shortly after card opened.

Well, today I got a CANNED reply from the message rep who told me bonus would be posted 6 to 8 weeks after spend requirement was met - regardless she was replying to my follow up inquiry that gave the spend date (April 14) AND the previous chat rep's Chat ID reference, that she told me to contact AMEX if bonus not showing up in due course, contact AMEX and "we" would manually post it.

Annoyed, I logged in to see if chat was available. Once connected I gave the chat rep the details - date met spend, previous chat ID, and the fact now it is almost 10 weeks passed and still no sign of bonus, not to mention the Canned Reply I just got to repeat the 6 to 8 weeks wait. Luckily this rep understood. He went to talk to his supervisor and came back shortly to inform me the bonus is issued and would be on next statement...

I insisted the bonus can be on next statement to become available, but I want to see it now in Pending. I dont want to keep following up on this if for whatever reason it is a no show again. To his credit, he agreed to confer with his supervisor. Took a long time but he came back once to inform me "we are in the process to release it." Finally he came back to tell me it would be 48 to 72 hours for the bonus to show up but it is issued. I then logged in and saw the bonus posted, finally.

While it ends well, it is frustrating why others who applied and met spend around the same time, first half of April, saw theirs at or around their first statement. Some applied in May saw theirs posted a few days after meeting spend. Yet for unknown glitches, mine has taken a lot of efforts to finally get it.

BTW, on all follow ups, every time every one said the bonus offer was attached to the card. Why it did not post automatically like others cards, I have no idea.

Oh, regardless the Philippines based phone rep said he would open an investigation - it was no where to be found in the record. The rep who replied my inquiry obviously did not see any. The chat rep today also did not see such. Basically the "investigation" ticket either is never open or falls into AMEX system black hole.

tomcanada22

Hi Happy,
Not sure if this is your first Amex card or had one in the past or still have one open.
Just curious if your new Amex card reflect your old credit history with Amex? Thanks

Happy

All AMEX cards after your first one would pick up your original date when you get your first AMEX card, even if you have a period in between not having any AMEX card.

krazykanuck

^ Happy, if you don't have a reference number for the dispute, it doesn't exist.

Happy

I did ask for that last week when the Filippino rep told me he was putting the investigation on my account and "if you called tomorrow, the phone rep should be able to tell you the reference number." I did not question it though I suspected he was just putting me off. That was why I dug up the old message exchanged shortly after card opened that AMEX replied the card was attached to the offer, sent a reply on that with all the pertinent data to inquire once more where was the bonus.

Had I not received the Canned Reply I probably would just wait a bit more to call. That Canned Reply irked me to no end when all the writer said was "Please note the bonus would post 6 to 8 weeks after spend requirement is met." - showing completely the writer has not even read thru my inquiry and just does a copy/paste formality reply. After close the chat I praised the current chat rep on the survey but also gave AMEX a 7, that brought up the box for me to write my complaint in. Whether any computer software would pick up the key words for statistical analysis only God would know, but it gives me a small satisfaction.

howtofreetravel

Does CVS and Walgreens count as supermarkets?

silver6054

They code as drug stores for Blue Cash, so doubt if they code as supermarkets here.

Valveking

Amex tried to deny my wife the 15,000 point bonus on the Preferred card because she already has 2 other Amex cards. They relented when I canceled her Premier Rewards Gold card, but be careful. They seem to be cracking down on these bonuses.

Happy

They should check the latest T&Cs on the Chase cards. Very clear-cut language for when and how one would receive another bonus. Chase took this from AMEX' ambiguous language in the past and made it clear and precise. Kudo to Chase which will keep the bulk of its customers who have a plethora of Chase products to choose from.