HGHUA

Called Amex to ask about backdating my new PRG and they said no exceptions. No backdating on any card Mar 22 or forward.

MrMosby

If I was a betting Man (and I am) I'd bet they are doing this to make churning less attractive. Amex helped with scores for customers who churned, this removes that from the equation.

You actually will need to keep accounts open for long term AAoA

flyershmlyer

Heavy churners usually have excellent credit. And for them AAoA is less (borderline not) an issue.

MrMosby

20 points or so is enough to tilt the scale on automatic approval sometimes though.

NYCRuss

Heavy churners, who have been doing it for years, can easily have high FICO scores. If someone opens and closes 10 cards a year every year for at least ten years, that's about 100 accounts reporting with an AAoA (for those cards) of over 5 years.

That's strong.

If there is also a core portfolio of let's say 20 cards with an AAoA that's even higher, the overall AAoA should easily be high enough to maintain FICO scores over 800 provided that there are no negatives, and a low utilization rate.

Electroman

This is unfortunate, but not terribly so. AMEX has my oldest accounts, and I was about to add another two or so since my AAoA is now down to about seven years. That's still pretty good, actually.

flyershmlyer

like others have said, it won't make you drop because of AAoA if you have thick enough file. Inquiries might, but not AAoA.

besides, amex has taken care of churning with the 1 per lifetime rule.

AAoA for churning is simply not behind this, in any way.

gruntermen

Back in 1999 I opened a Gold Amex Card. It is not exactly a credit card because once a month the outstanding balance is automatically paid out of a brokerage account that it is linked to. I don't believe there is any option to carry a balance. I suppose it is a hybrid between a credit card and a debit card. This card has never been used and it has never appeared on my credit report. In 2013, I opened an Amex Blue Cash Preferred Card. The physical card and my credit report both show that the Blue Cash account has been open since 1999.

I am planning to close the Amex Gold card. It is one less account to have to worry about being hacked or otherwise compromised. If I do that, will my Blue Cash account continue to be reported as being open since 1999 or will the opening date revert back to 2013? Also, would any future accounts I open with Amex have an open date of 1999 or would it be something different?

I do plan to ask Amex about this but I would be curious to know if anyone out there on FT knows the answer. I have come to learn that sometimes there are other FT members who understand how a company works better then some of the company's own front line customer service reps...

HGHUA

If u close it the blue cash will still show 1999. But any new accts after that will show the real date. Amex stopped backdating a few months ago.

shelliebelly

Datapoint: Had husband apply for PRG (for himself) over the weekend & he had instant approval. Card arrived and had Member Since date of 2009. He had a basic amex card back in the late 90's, which he cancelled after a couple years since many places didn't accept it back then. He had no idea about the backdating & I thought the practice had been discontinued, but for some reason or another they backdated his. Mistake, possibly, but maybe the practice isn't completely dead.

NYCRuss

This thread is about cards now reporting to bureaus with the year that the card was opened, instead of the year of the member since date.

GueroDeTejas

In the past Amex would report the opening date of a new card account as being the year of your oldest open card account. Of course, this was great and could have a significant impact on the Age of Credit factor used in calculating your Credit Score. I recently opened an Everyday card (5/2015) primarily for this reason (to offset the impact of other recent new cards opened). Amex is reporting the actual date opened to the credit bureaus. Two calls to the department handling say they discontinued using the oldest account date sometime earlier this year. Excuse this entry if it's old news, but is this correct?

gsxsilver

Still backdates to 08 for cards open in feb and aug 2015.

MSPeconomist

Are they also changing how they do the "cardmember since" date?

mia

Yes. American Express (USA) ended this practice in March or April (scroll back to post #1). They should still show the older Member Since year on the new cards, but the reported date is accurate.