OhDoctor

I am furious. Cancelled my Citi Hilton Reserve on December 25th, and received my "new" Amex Hilton Ascend card in the mail today. Was preparing to apply for a new credit card in a few weeks and now I'm wondering if that's totally up in the air. The account doesn't appear to be listed on my online Amex profile, but I am forced to assume this is a hard pull on my credit? I also assume this now disqualifies me from a future Ascend bonus.

Anyone know how this affects future CC applications? I'm seeing numerous similar reports and it's really hard to believe how badly Amex screwed this up.

OhDoctor

Update: After talking with Amex Customer Service, their official position is that for someone like myself who cancelled the Hilton Reserve in December, the card was sent in error, and so therefore:

1) Will not represent a hard pull on my credit
2) Will not be reflected as an account opening on my credit history (as long as I don't activate it)
3) Will not be reflected as an account closing (for not activating the new card) on my credit history

This all seems really suspect, but I don't know what else to do. I have it in writing just in case.

ChinaShrek

So, what does your credit report show?

sannmann

OhDoctor

Currently shows my Citi Hilton account closed as of 1/1/2018 (despite calling to close it in the last week of December 2017). I don't see a new Amex account on the books at the moment, but am concerned one will pop up when the new Amex cards activate on Jan 30th. I also don't see any recent hard inquiries as of now.

Slickdilla

Will this count against 5/24? Absolutely ridiculous if so. Has this card shown up on anyone's report who has not yet activated?

krazykanuck

Well that certainly escalated and de-escalated quickly.

Might I point you to the Amex/Hilton FAQ that should answer your questions, in particular the one titled "Why did I receive a Hilton Honors American Express Card after cancelling my Citi Hilton Honors Card?": https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...transfer/faqs/

OhDoctor

That's nice, but it's vague, non-specific, and doesn't answer any of the questions that I raised initially (or, as Slickdilla points out, how this will affect Chase 5/24 applications). Does this guarantee, for example, that I suddenly won't have an Account Open/Account Closure back-to-back that appears on my credit report suddenly on January 30th? Now, you might say, of course not.. but that would have been my same response to the question, "Will Amex sent me a new Ascend card even after I close my Citi Hilton Reserve?"

It's bizarre to receive a new card with my name and a unique account number, yet be assured this is essentially a phantom card/account that goes away on its own on February 1st. Have you every heard of something like that happening before? Because I haven't. And given how stringent Chase is with new applications these days, any irregularity could cost you a new account.

And honestly, it hasn't de-escalated much. All I have is the guarantee of a quasi-anonymous Amex Online Chat representative named "Alice" to assuage my concerns.

sdsearch

It totally depends on credit report specifics. 5/24 does not count pulls, it only counts bank card accounts showing on your credit report with an "opened on" date in the past 24 months.

If it doesn't show up as a card account on your credit report at all, it won't count.

If it shows up but is backdated to the date you opened up the Citi card, and your Citi card was opened more than 2 years ago, it won't count.

If it's otherwise backdated in some way, it depend on how it's backdated. (For example, Amex once used to backdate all their cards to the date you first opened any Amex card, but they stopped that in early 2015.)

OhDoctor

Well, the "unactivated" Amex Ascend showed up today on my Amex Accounts page as an open account with a $10k+ credit limit. Still nothing on my Credit Karma report, but not particularly comforting.

If nothing else, this probably now disqualifies me from ever earning a sign up bonus on this card, despite never actually applying for it. So that's pretty stupid.

Fly2Where

May not be exactly the same, but having experience with costco/amex transition into costco citi.
1) account open date will carry over to citi, thus credit history consider "same card". Much like regular card conversion (no sign up bonus).
2) no hard pull
3) not sure about applying for same card sign up bonus.... probably not.

CalvaryMike

I canceled my Hilton Citi cards in November for me and my spouse. A couple of days ago, we both received the new Amex Hilton cards. A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for a Chase card and was denied due to the 5/24 rule. I have not opened 5 cards in the last 24 months. I haven't had time yet to research this. But when the Amex cards showed up in the mail, I went 'Aha'. I'm also pissed! I'm also concerned now that I won't qualify for the sign up bonus on the new Amex Hilton cards.

sdsearch

When exactly in November? According to one source I recently saw in one of the many threads about this, November 17 was a cut-off date.

I cancelled mine immediately on Nov 1 after learning that it would be transfer to Amex (both on FT and via an email from Citi that day), and as of yesterday's mail I have not yet received any new Amex HH card, nor is a new (redundant) Amex HH card showing in my Amex account online.

notquiteaff

Those affected might want to research the option of filing a complaint with the CFPB against Amex for signing them up for an unsolicited credit card (IANAL, but some basic Google research indicates that it is violating the Truth in Lending act). Perhaps just threatening that step if Amex doesn't clean up the mess completely (remove from credit report, internal files) might be sufficient.