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OK so long story short, I had my current Amex Gold Premier Rewards card's member since date backdated to 1995. Just for the heck of it, I disputed the accuracy of the trade line with transunion to see if I can get my open date updated sooner than later; the results show that the information was verified and no updates made. I called the credit bureau unit at Amex and was told that they still see an open date of 07/2010 and referred me to their customer service. After speaking with a customer service rep, I was told that the member since date was updated, the the open date will always be the same date the card was opened, in this case 07/2010. To add, the new Clear card that I applied and was approved for will show a member since date of 1995, but an open date of 09/2011!
Are we sure that backdating adds to the AAOA (average age of open account) or even the AAA (average account age)? I don't see how that is possible if the open date on the credit report remains the same. It's not like the credit reports have a "member since" date reported...
Thoughts?
Short answer. If it was backdated after they had already reported it they will not change it. Subsequent cards you open will show the original opening date as the month you opened and the year you first became an amex customer.
Unless this is something different.
@stefanc wrote:
Any Amex's I have opened (even ones that initially have the "real" open date on the card itself when they first send it) always report my backdated open since date with the CRA's. Perhaps, they were referring to their own internal open date?
hmmm... That would make sense except that my dispute with the CRA (Transunion) proved unfruitful and the "open date" on my credit report remained the same (07/2010).
@Anonymous wrote:Short answer. If it was backdated after they had already reported it they will not change it. Subsequent cards you open will show the original opening date as the month you opened and the year you first became an amex customer.
Unless this is something different.
Hopefully! My Amex Clear card that I was just approved for (after the backdating) has not yet been reported to any of the CRAs.
There was a thread similar to this a while back. I believe DI was the one who originated it. He got his card and it was not backdated. He didn't get it backdated until after it already started reporting to the CRA and then was not able to get them to change their reporting. If you get it backdated before it reports to the CRA, then it should report with your member since date.
I'm not saying that there is no way for them to correct it if you get backdated after it has already reported. Just saying that there was a similar experience. It may be a YMMV situation.
That said, I would not dispute information like this with the CRA. It's accurate. It's just not in keeping with what seems to be a particular policy of Amex. And these kinds of credit bureau disputes might cause Amex to reevaluate this policy.
@Iincognito wrote:
To add, the new Clear card that I applied and was approved for will show a member since date of 1995, but an open date of 09/2011!
Are we sure that backdating adds to the AAOA (average age of open account) or even the average age? I don't see how that is possible if the open date on the credit report remains the same. It's not like the credit reports have a "member since" date reported...
Thoughts?
How do you know the Clear is going to report an open date of 9/2011? Is it already showing? Or is that just what the rep told you or what you deduced from what the rep told you. If your new clear is already backdated, I think you will find that when it shows up on your reports it will show up with an open date of 9/1995.
Are we sure backdating adds to AAoA? Yes, but only if your member since date reports as your open date. My Amex PR Gold reports as opened in October 1998. But I opened the card in October 2010.
I would wait and see what happens with the Clear. It will likely backdate properly. I think your problem is that your PR Gold was already reporting when you had it backdated. If you really want the PR Gold to report with the backdated open date, you could cancel this one and apply for a new one which should backdate and report properly. You'll need a separate MR earning card to maintain any points you've already accumulated. Is Clear MR? Instead of cancelling and then applying for a new card, you could downgrade your PR Gold to a Green. Apply for a new PR Gold, then cancel the Green. Something along those lines.
@Walt_K wrote:How do you know the Clear is going to report an open date of 9/2011? Is it already showing? Or is that just what the rep told you or what you deduced from what the rep told you. If your new clear is already backdated, I think you will find that when it shows up on your reports it will show up with an open date of 9/1995.
Walt_K, thanks for the detailed response! You are right, the Clear has not yet been reported on my credit report. The rep told me that their system shows the Clear's open date as 09/2011, with a member since date of 1995. So, by putting two together and seeing what was not changed on my PR Gold card, I assume that it would be the same for my Clear card. I will wait to see how the Clear card is reported, when it is reported.
@Iincognito wrote:
OK so long story short, I had my current Amex Gold Premier Rewards card's member since date backdated to 1995. Just for the heck of it, I disputed the accuracy of the trade line with transunion to see if I can get my open date updated sooner than later; the results show that the information was verified and no updates made. I called the credit bureau unit at Amex and was told that they still see an open date of 07/2010 and referred me to their customer service. After speaking with a customer service rep, I was told that the member since date was updated, the the open date will always be the same date the card was opened, in this case 07/2010. To add, the new Clear card that I applied and was approved for will show a member since date of 1995, but an open date of 09/2011!
Are we sure that backdating adds to the AAOA (average age of open account) or even the AAA (average account age)? I don't see how that is possible if the open date on the credit report remains the same. It's not like the credit reports have a "member since" date reported...
Thoughts?
csr may or not be aware of the AAoA benefit, in any case, wouldn't go chatting with them about it
@Anonymous wrote:Short answer. If it was backdated after they had already reported it they will not change it. Subsequent cards you open will show the original opening date as the month you opened and the year you first became an amex customer.
Unless this is something different.
Not correct... although YMMV as always-
@Anonymous wrote:Short answer. If it was backdated after they had already reported it they will not change it. Subsequent cards you open will show the original opening date as the month you opened and the year you first became an amex customer.
Unless this is something different.
My cards has been open and reporting for over a year. I recently called and had my card backdated and it changed my open date.