Anyone have the new Macy's AmEx showing on their reports yet?

[Ron1]

The hologram is on the magnetic stripe of the card.

Ron.

[Anonymous]

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@Ron1 wrote:

The hologram is on the magnetic stripe of the card.

Ron.

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That's right.  My AmEx Plat. & Blue also have the hologram on the magnetic stripe. 

It's just that every AmEx card I have seen that is not directly issued by AmEx itself has either a round or octogonal hologram on the front.  IMO -- and especially with  the USAA AmEx, the hologram on the front detracts from the card design.  Glad Macy's put the hologram on the back.

[Lel]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

It looks like the new cards are starting to arrive. I'm guessing that they won't report as AmEx's until the next statement.

I'm awfully curious as to whether they will report just one tradeline with the original opening date or two tradelines, one with the old date and one with the new.

I finally got my BofA World card (whoopee), and everyone here has assured me that it will only report one TL, with the new account number but the old date. I'll find out for sure in a few days when it updates, I guess.

But I don't know if the same will be true with Macy's.

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My Macy's Amex has a "Cardholder Since" date of 2006, same as my Macy's Visa.  So I'm hoping that even with the new account number, the new account will continue to report the original open date.  The past account history for the Visa account is still associated with the new Amex account when I check it online (that is, I can see Macy's Visa statements from June when I look up the statements listed under the Amex account).  The online entry for the Visa account disappeared once I added the Amex to my profile.

The only confounding factor is that I also opened a Costco Amex card in 2006.  Doesn't Amex somehow keep track of all your Amex accounts, so you'll always have a "Cardholder Since" date that reflects the opening of the original account, even if it's a new card?  So maybe the 2006 date refers to my Costco card?  I thought I read something about this.  But O6's reply indicates that the date on the card probably represents the date the Macy's account was opened.

Anyways, I expect that this won't appear as a new TL on my reports.  When my Upromise MC migrated from Citi to BofA, my account history migrated as well.  And I've done a bunch of PCs on my Chase Mileage Plus Visa, resulting in new account numbers but preserved account history and no new TLs.

[haulingthescoreup]

You'll have the same opening date on all your AmEx-AmEx cards, but not on your non-AmEx-AmEx cards.

In other words, AmEx cards from Macy's and USAA and BofA and PenFed and all the rest have the consumer protections and whatnot that come along with an AmEx card, and they're processed through the AmEx card-processing network, but they don't make you a member of AmEx, with access to their rewards structure and so forth. So you don't have that "member since" date happening.

If your Macy's was opened in 2006, I'd guess that's why 2006 is showing on the new card.

[Wolf3]

I think more people are confused by American Express than about anything.  Although Discover is the same way.

American Express has a Credit Card network called American Express or AMEX, it is the brand on the card.  The network is used by the merchants to send in charges and get payment.  Visa, Mastercard and Discover are all networks.  The networks do have standards on minimum features, so their are some benefits that all banks have to provide for each network. 

American Express company has a bank that issues issues credit cards.  It issues the Green, Gold, Zync, Blue, Clear, Costco, Hilton to name the main ones.   The rewards benefits and fees are the determined by the bank.  The American Express bank is the one who does the backdating of their cards.   No else does, it the choice of the bank and has nothing to do with the American Express Network.

BofA, CIti, USAA, HSBC, GEMB, are all banks that issue credit cards on several networks including AMEX, VISA, MC, Discover.    The terms, rewards, fees, dates are determined by the bank.   CIti for instance issues the MACY AMEX card.   Your account is with CITI, not the American Express Bank.  

BofA used to have Bankamericard but they changed the network name to VISA, and no one is confused.   CITI started Mastercard with its own name, no confusion.   Discover is now letting other banks like HSBC issue their network card, confusion.  

By the way, Cobranded cards are those that have a network and a business brand.

Macys AMEX

Costco AMEX

BestBuy MC

LL Bean Visa

are all co branded.

An Amex network card from BofA is not a cobranded card, it is a single brand AMEX.

Affinity cards have network and a non business association such as a university or non profit.

I hope this helps.

[haulingthescoreup]

Nice clarification!