@bichonmom wrote:
@Revelate wrote:Unless you're planning to apply for a big ticket item like a mortgage or auto loan in the 6-12 month range, in my opinion it's irrelevant.
Amex may or may not backdate you; however, if you're ever going to want to backdate in the future, you want that account opened as soon as possible. Don't sweat the AAoA that much at the moment on EQ, that'll only grow with time: if you want an Amex for whatever reason, just get it out of the way. For that matter, that old account will get pulled in on a tri-pull merge for a mortgage anyway if it's reporting on 2/3.
I don't get why it's irrelevant. If my EQ score drops because of a new CC, then it's going to affect my insurance renewal coming up in March and possible CLIs this year.
I had Amex in the 80s, so it would be backdated to then... not to this year. I don't really care about having it dated 2012. That's not going to do anything for my AAoA or FICO at this point. And I have older CCs, so I don't see how it would help my AAoA in the future, either. I could be wrong about that, but that's my understanding.
I want Amex for backdating and rewards. But it seems like I may be better off waiting to app since I don't know how it will affect my EQ FICO w/o backdating.
Amex raretly pulls EQ, they're almost exclusively EX for everyone: no inquiry damage on EQ - that inquiry will not show up on the other two if that's the case for you. Your insurance company is unlikely to pull all three, look at your old reports and see what they pulled if this concerns you. This is especially true if you're an established customer with them.
Temporary score drops for insurance might hit you for six months, and inquiries are generally not substantial damage to one's score anyway... nowhere close to any other negative of any sort. There's lots of ups and downs going from non-prime, to prime, to gold-plated elite: don't stress temporary issues.
For the Amex one, if you can't backdate this new card you're getting to what you had previously, you're not going to be able to backdate anything else either from Amex in the future. As a result, go get the tradeline now so that you can absolutely backdate to the new one going forward. Finally, if you know you want a particular tradeline (credit / charge card in this case), you want it as soon as possible to start establishing payment history on it. Mathematically this'll help your AAoA further in the future, than if you wait to open the card later.
It's up to you, though whether now or post-insurance quote is probalby doesn't make much difference in the long run.
