Is Amex back dating taken into consideration?

[slap_happy]

When a bank is looking at your CR, do they take into account the fact that your AAoA is off due to Amex backdating? Like maybe you just opened an Amex last month but it's reporting that it's a 15 years old account. Any thoughts?

[bribro]

I highly doubt they care.

[Shogun]

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@bribro wrote:

I highly doubt they care.

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I second that.  I don't think it matters.

[09Lexie]

^^^ or even notice

[TheConductor]

They have no way of knowing.  On your report, whether you opened 3 accounts in 2007 or only one in 2007 and two more in 2009 and 2011, all they will see is 3 accounts from 2007.

In addition, unless you open all those accounts in the same month, they will still have different dates since Amex backdates using the month you established the new account combined with the year of the oldest account.  So if you applied in 1/2007, 5/2009, and 3/2011, your backdated accounts would show 1/2007, 5/2007, and 3/2007.

The only case in which knowledge about backdating might set you back is if you had a borderline case for approval and your recon call was handled by an analyst who understands backdating.  In that case, they might recognize that backdating could be earning you a few points for AAoA and decide to err on the side of caution.  Especially if they were savvy enough to cross-check it with recent inquiries and saw that you had recently apped to Amex.  But even then, they can't be certain that your apparently "old" Amex account was from that inquiry - you might have recently apped another account and been denied.

Bottom line: most credit decisions are made by computers, not people. And the raw information in the credit file gives the computer no way to know with certainty if you are the beneficiary of backdating or truly have a legitimate AAoA.

Moreover, it's pretty much an open secret in the industry that Amex does this.  But it's also an open secret that Amex targets a more affluent demographic on average, and that they do more due diligence on their customers than most issuers because they are both the network and the issuer for their in-house cards.  Those factors make having an Amex on your credit file enough of a pro to outweigh the con of a potentially-inflated AAoA.  Most creditors simply won't care, because two plusses and a minus is still a plus.

[enharu]

During a manual review, such as for a mortgage app, a lender would probably notice that, but like bibro said, I doubt they would care.

Most of the time they're really just looking out for derogs or factors that will affect your ability to repay the loan.