Credit Cards

[brother7]

This question is for my brother.

He's a longtime AMEX gold card member [CORRECTION: he had a Platinum Optima card] and recently cancelled the card to save the AF.  (Unfortunately, he's not a myFICO reader like me, so he didn't know how damaging this is to his AAoA).

I told him about the Costco TrueEarnings card and it's cashback feature.  It suits him well because his car gets 15-17mpg (5% cashback on gas) and he eats out a lot (3% cashback at restaurants).

Now he wants to apply for the TrueEarnings card.  He hasn't applied yet.

My questions are:

Is there a way that he can get the history from his old AMEX card transferred to a new TrueEarnings card? He tried calling the regular AMEX customer service and was told no. Is there a backdoor AMEX number that might be more effective?

Message Edited by brother7 on 03-23-2009 09:02 AM

Message Edited by brother7 on 03-23-2009 09:02 AM

Message Edited by brother7 on 03-23-2009 09:02 AM

[score_building]

if he is approved for another amex he will get the membership date of his original card listed on the new card, which is good for his AAoA.  avoid calling amex cs, especially if you have any open accts. with them. 

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brother7 wrote:

This question is for my brother.

He's a longtime AMEX gold card member [CORRECTION: he had a Platinum Optima card] and recently cancelled the card to save the AF.  (Unfortunately, he's not a myFICO reader like me, so he didn't know how damaging this is to his AAoA).

I told him about the Costco TrueEarnings card and it's cashback feature.  It suits him well because his car gets 15-17mpg (5% cashback on gas) and he eats out a lot (3% cashback at restaurants).

Now he wants to apply for the TrueEarnings card.  He hasn't applied yet.

My questions are:

Is there a way that he can get the history from his old AMEX card transferred to a new TrueEarnings card? He tried calling the regular AMEX customer service and was told no. Is there a backdoor AMEX number that might be more effective?

Message Edited by brother7 on 03-23-2009 09:02 AM

Message Edited by brother7 on 03-23-2009 09:02 AM

Message Edited by brother7 on 03-23-2009 09:02 AM

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[brother7]

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score_building wrote:

if he is approved for another amex he will get the membership date of his original card listed on the new card, which is good for his AAoA.  avoid calling amex cs, especially if you have any open accts. with them.

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What if he already cancelled his first AMEX card? If he apps for a new AMEX, will the original membership date still get transferred?

[score_building]

typically yes, if he is approved - they will issue the new card with the original member date.  he can call amex credit reporting to request they backdate if for some reason it doesn't show the original date on the new card. 

when i received 2 new amex cards in 2007 they didn't show my original member date (1990). i called credit reporting and they updated all three cbrs to the original card's date opened.  in order to talk to them you need the account number(s) from a full EX report (not a 3-in-1 report).

american express credit reporting:  800) 874-2717

[concorduser]

New Amex card will have the old date when first became member of Amex network.

[brother7]

Thanks for all the useful info.  I'll pass it along to my brother.