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iMacDrew
Frequent Contributor

Backdating

What is so great about Amex Backdating, I cant figure it out, it seems like the only thing that it does is change the date of the card to the first time you had an amex card... Is there more to it than this?

Lender pulled 10-10-13
EQ Fico 715 | EX Fico 714 | TU Fico 703
Message 1 of 18
17 REPLIES 17
tylaw13
Regular Contributor

Re: Backdating


@iMacDrew wrote:

What is so great about Amex Backdating, I cant figure it out, it seems like the only thing that it does is change the date of the card to the first time you had an amex card... Is there more to it than this?


Well if you knew how your FICO score is calculated then maybe you would see a significance. Average Age of Accounts is part of your FICO score and opening a new card will hurt your AAoA and potentially hurt your score (almost 100% of the time) so AMEX, being the great company they are has what is called backdating to allow fo you to apply for a new card and not worry about it hurting your AAoA and in a lot of cases helping it. It's just another reason AMEX is great and everybody wants a relationship with them.

EQ FICO - 725 (9/11/13) TU FICO - 724 (6/27/13) EX FICO (6/30/13) 755 AMEX
Im my wallet - Cap1 Platinum MC(2000) Chase Freedom(1500) AMEX BCE (7000) Discover IT (8000) CSP (15000) Cal Coast CU (8000)
Message 2 of 18
iMacDrew
Frequent Contributor

Re: Backdating

ok well right, I understand that, but why do people wait till the beginning of the year to apply for Amex cards...

Lender pulled 10-10-13
EQ Fico 715 | EX Fico 714 | TU Fico 703
Message 3 of 18
CribDuchess
Established Contributor

Re: Backdating

I just added a third Amex card (the BCE) in May and it was automatically backdated to 1989.  My AAoA was already 16 years and it didn't change (was hoping it would increase!).  But the card appears on all of my credit reports with an open date of May 1989.

 

I've read of some people getting a good score boost from adding a backdated Amex.  I guess it depends on whether you have a thin file, shorter AAoA, etc.  My file is thick and AAoA already pretty good, so I guess that's why I didn't see a gain in my AAofA.

 

FICOs: TU08 842 EQ08 850 EX08 850

My Wallet: Amex Gold NPSL; Amex Optima Platinum $25K; Amex BCE $12K; Apple Card $20K; BofA Travel Rewards Visa Sig $67.6K; Cap1 Quicksilver Visa Sig $10K; CSP $28.2K; Chase Freedom $13K; Chase Freedom Unlimited $21.4K; Citi Costco Visa $19.3K; Citi Double Cash $13.5K; Citi Simplicity Visa $23.3K; Discover IT $50K; Fidelity Visa $25K; NFCU Flagship Visa Sig $40K; NFCU More Rewards Amex $30K; PenFed Plat Rewards Visa Sig $50K; Sears MC $10.1K; US Bank Altitude Go Visa Sig $20K; US Bank Cash+ Visa Sig $26K; Wells Fargo Rewards Visa Sig $14K
Message 4 of 18
CribDuchess
Established Contributor

Re: Backdating


@iMacDrew wrote:

ok well right, I understand that, but why do people wait till the beginning of the year to apply for Amex cards...


Because January is when you can get the most bang for your backdating.  Let's say you opened a Zync this month and so it reports as opened 7/2012 on your credit reports.  And then in January 2013 you opened a BCP.  The BCP would end up showing on your credit reports as being opened 1/2012, thus being 6 months older than your first Amex card (Zync in this scenario).  That's how the backdating works. Smiley Happy

FICOs: TU08 842 EQ08 850 EX08 850

My Wallet: Amex Gold NPSL; Amex Optima Platinum $25K; Amex BCE $12K; Apple Card $20K; BofA Travel Rewards Visa Sig $67.6K; Cap1 Quicksilver Visa Sig $10K; CSP $28.2K; Chase Freedom $13K; Chase Freedom Unlimited $21.4K; Citi Costco Visa $19.3K; Citi Double Cash $13.5K; Citi Simplicity Visa $23.3K; Discover IT $50K; Fidelity Visa $25K; NFCU Flagship Visa Sig $40K; NFCU More Rewards Amex $30K; PenFed Plat Rewards Visa Sig $50K; Sears MC $10.1K; US Bank Altitude Go Visa Sig $20K; US Bank Cash+ Visa Sig $26K; Wells Fargo Rewards Visa Sig $14K
Message 5 of 18
flowman
Established Member

Re: Backdating

By far, back dating is a great feature of Amex cards that can give you a major bump in score. Think of it as membership has its privileges.... No other credit card has this feature. Here's how it has worked for me. Freshman year in college, I got my first card. The year was 1988 and my card was an Amex green. Back then, I didnt appreciate Amex as I do today. I closed my account due to the yearly membership fee after couple years. Fast forward to to 2005, I got laid off from work and got into a financial mess with CO on many of my cards. I landed back on my feet financially and in 2007 started rebuilding my credit. While rebuilding, I learned about Amex backdating and used it to my advantage. When i first opened my Costco Amex card, I requested that my card be backdated to 1988, my first membership year with Amex and got it. The first benefit was that I noticed a major spike (40pts) on my credit report as Amex reported me as a member sice 1988. That's a clean history for nearly 20 years. Second, within the Amex network, applying for new cards is like getting the royal treatment. The reps always tell me "wow, I see you've been with Amex since 1988" and I get approvals without delay or worries. Of course, those new cards are all backdated to 1988. In a nutshell, I will never get a hit for applying for new accounts from Amex. In fact, I will get a bump up as my Aaa will increase. If you can backdate, do it... Trust me, it's well worth it.
Message 6 of 18
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Backdating


@CribDuchess wrote:

@iMacDrew wrote:

ok well right, I understand that, but why do people wait till the beginning of the year to apply for Amex cards...


Because January is when you can get the most bang for your backdating.  Let's say you opened a Zync this month and so it reports as opened 7/2012 on your credit reports.  And then in January 2013 you opened a BCP.  The BCP would end up showing on your credit reports as being opened 1/2012, thus being 6 months older than your first Amex card (Zync in this scenario).  That's how the backdating works. Smiley Happy


Doesn't quite work out like this mathematically I think.  For the individual tradeline, it will always be exactly X years older than today's date regardless of when you open it.  Stupid example:

 

Original account opened 2012.

 

New Account in 1/2013 = 1/12 backdate, one year history on the new tradeline

or New Account in 2/2013 = 2/12 backdate, one year history on the new tradeline

or New Account in 3/2013 = 3/12 backdate, one year history on the new tradeline

 

I was thinking about that the other day (and admittedly I've mentioned the whole January thing too), but the two most important things are:

- Cross a year boundary

- Open up any tradeline you want as soon as possible.

 

So if we're talking March or whatever, just open it (payment history counts afterall which backdating doesn't help with to my knowledge), but if we're talking November, then it's prudent to wait till January and take the additional year on backdating.  Not sure where it exactly breaks down in terms of better to wait or not, judgement call since everyone's situation is by definition different I guess.

 

From that analysis though, January should likely receive the statistical majority of the applications compared to other individual months, but it's not mandated to do so and might be deterimental if you're missing out on a bunch of payment entries by not opening it up ealrier.

 




        
Message 7 of 18
Repo-ed
Senior Contributor

Re: Backdating

<--- will break out of the garden in January for my next round of Amex products for my 2006 backdate

5/2012: 560 credit scores across the board
12/2014: 750+
3/2017: 780+
11/2019: 833
2/2023: Experian via Chase United Explorer CC pull - 891
Message 8 of 18
iMacDrew
Frequent Contributor

Re: Backdating


@CribDuchess wrote:

@iMacDrew wrote:

ok well right, I understand that, but why do people wait till the beginning of the year to apply for Amex cards...


Because January is when you can get the most bang for your backdating.  Let's say you opened a Zync this month and so it reports as opened 7/2012 on your credit reports.  And then in January 2013 you opened a BCP.  The BCP would end up showing on your credit reports as being opened 1/2012, thus being 6 months older than your first Amex card (Zync in this scenario).  That's how the backdating works. Smiley Happy


Ahhhh I see !!! so its like an exploited glitch in the system? >Smiley Happy

Lender pulled 10-10-13
EQ Fico 715 | EX Fico 714 | TU Fico 703
Message 9 of 18
CribDuchess
Established Contributor

Re: Backdating


@Revelate wrote:

@CribDuchess wrote:

@iMacDrew wrote:

ok well right, I understand that, but why do people wait till the beginning of the year to apply for Amex cards...


Because January is when you can get the most bang for your backdating.  Let's say you opened a Zync this month and so it reports as opened 7/2012 on your credit reports.  And then in January 2013 you opened a BCP.  The BCP would end up showing on your credit reports as being opened 1/2012, thus being 6 months older than your first Amex card (Zync in this scenario).  That's how the backdating works. Smiley Happy


Doesn't quite work out like this mathematically I think.  For the individual tradeline, it will always be exactly X years older than today's date regardless of when you open it.  Stupid example:

 

Original account opened 2012.

 

New Account in 1/2013 = 1/12 backdate, one year history on the new tradeline

or New Account in 2/2013 = 2/12 backdate, one year history on the new tradeline

or New Account in 3/2013 = 3/12 backdate, one year history on the new tradeline

 

I was thinking about that the other day (and admittedly I've mentioned the whole January thing too), but the two most important things are:

- Cross a year boundary

- Open up any tradeline you want as soon as possible.

 

So if we're talking March or whatever, just open it (payment history counts afterall which backdating doesn't help with to my knowledge), but if we're talking November, then it's prudent to wait till January and take the additional year on backdating.  Not sure where it exactly breaks down in terms of better to wait or not, judgement call since everyone's situation is by definition different I guess.

 

From that analysis though, January should likely receive the statistical majority of the applications compared to other individual months, but it's not mandated to do so and might be deterimental if you're missing out on a bunch of payment entries by not opening it up ealrier.

 


All very good points.  I definitely agree about the payment history helping so much more than backdating ever could.  Backdating is a unique feature of Amex, but I don't think backdating helps when your reports are being reviewed manually by underwriting.  I opened a BCE in May 2012 and it's reporting as opened in May 1989.  Pretty sure an underwriter can figure that one out when they see the payment/balance history begins in June 2012.

 

Backdating can sometimes help with AAofA.

FICOs: TU08 842 EQ08 850 EX08 850

My Wallet: Amex Gold NPSL; Amex Optima Platinum $25K; Amex BCE $12K; Apple Card $20K; BofA Travel Rewards Visa Sig $67.6K; Cap1 Quicksilver Visa Sig $10K; CSP $28.2K; Chase Freedom $13K; Chase Freedom Unlimited $21.4K; Citi Costco Visa $19.3K; Citi Double Cash $13.5K; Citi Simplicity Visa $23.3K; Discover IT $50K; Fidelity Visa $25K; NFCU Flagship Visa Sig $40K; NFCU More Rewards Amex $30K; PenFed Plat Rewards Visa Sig $50K; Sears MC $10.1K; US Bank Altitude Go Visa Sig $20K; US Bank Cash+ Visa Sig $26K; Wells Fargo Rewards Visa Sig $14K
Message 10 of 18
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