Going to Amex CC from having gold?

[Anonymous]

So I got a gold card finally about 7 months ago.  I have paid it off on time every month and have racked up around 9k since having it.  My credit score jumped to a 720 the last 2 months and I paid off ALL my credit card balances yesterday, so utilization went from 45% to 1%.  I would rather not pay the $125 fee for gold when it comes up.  I really got the card because it was the only AMEX card that I qualified for at the time and wanted to get in.  Now I think I may have a pretty good chance with other amex cards.  Would I be able to "switch" from amex to another card?  Would this be bad for my FICO, I'm not sure if they would need to cancel the card, or if they could shift it over.  Or am I better off just adding another card like a blue?  I would rather not close the gold account if its going to effect FICO much.

[ArisGreek]

To my knowledge and from what I've gathered in this forum, you can only product change to certain categories.  Meaning, if you have a charge card, you can only PC to another charge card...if you have a revolving card, depending on the one you have, you can change to other revolving cards.

I had a AMEX Starwood Preferred Guest card and I did a PC to AMEX Blue Sky Preferred.  I could have also done Delta Skymiles Gold, Hilton Gold, Blue Cash, Blue Sky, and Blue Sky Preferred...I can't remember the other one...

Just keep in mind when you PC, you are generally not eligible say for the 20,000 bonus points or any of the new cardmember incentives unless you directly apply for it.

[clocktick]

If I'm not mistaken, don't they waive the annual fee of the Gold for the first year?  If so, I would at least keep it for another year.

[Creditaddict]

Wait till Jan (for back dating) and just apply for a second card.

If you still don't want to pay the annual fee on gold, wait till the month it bills and either close it or maybe pc to zync which is as little as $25 annually.

[Anonymous]

Sounds good, I have to say I'm slightly addicted to this forum, I'm gone thru about 100 pages of threads so far!!

[ferrari]

I think they bill the annual fee at the beginning of the second year so you might wanna close or change it before it hits 1 year

[haulingthescoreup]

I got a Blue when my Gold was 10 months old. I waited to make sure that it reported with the old year on it, and then I closed the Gold in month 11.

You'll have an inq on EX, but no new account ding. And as the others said, be sure to wait until January. Don't throw away 11 months of age!

[Watchmann]

I guess I'm a fool, I've had the Gold card since 1980 and have paid annual fees every year.  Think it was $50 way back then, now it is $150 for the Rewards Plus.  Prorated over the year it isn't much money and I've gotten used to having that card in the wallet.  I always thought since AMEX values long term relationships they could have forgiven the fee after 25 years, or at least comped it for that year but, nope AMEX didn't say a peep and just keeps charging the fee. 

Back around 1990 their first credit card (Optima) was offered to those that had a green or gold card.  I still have that card even though it is no longer available to the public.   It has $37,900 CL and Prime + 2.0% APR so it can come in handy for large purchases in an emergency.  I don't know if that card would be cancelled if I got rid of the Gold or not since they were initially tied together.  No fee on it so between the Gold and the Platinum Optima a yearly $150 fee for both cards seems reasonable.