Upgrading AEO store Card to VisaCard

[Venom911]

I'm not sure if I'm wriing in the right section, but.

I had an AEO cedit card for a year now and they offering to Upgrade it to a Visa Card. I'm worried that upgrading will close my store card in favor of the new one. I called their customer service and the lady said the store card will not be closed and that it's upgrade. But I am not 100% sure. I don't want a closed store card for a new credit card. 

Did anyone had a similar dillema? 

[austinguy907]

It can be tricky sometimes with Synch.

I.E.  Sam's store card for several years w/o an upgrade option even though some reported getting offered an upgrade over the years.

Got frustrated and pissed off dealing with GEMB at the time before Synch bought their portfolio.  I apped in store and got the Disc/MC for a 2nd account and was able to maintain both accounts until they closed the store only for non-use after 23 months.  

Upgrades normally show up as a "new account" on your report but, have the same open date and they copy the history over to the new account and mark the original account as closed.  How bad do you want the upgrade?  

[Venom911]

I don't need the upgrade that much, but I thought it  was better than a store card. however, I heard from a friend that they close the old account if you went for the upgrade. The store card is second oldest card so I don't want it closed. I called their customer service twice, the first one said they are gonna be the same account number, they'll just change it from a charge card to credit card. The second told me it's gonna be a new account while the store card will be kept open and that They can't combine the two cards for the same opening date due to some regulations. that's when I called the backdoor number for credit solution to get to the bottom of it, He transfered me to another AE CSR that told me it's gonna be a new account. At the end, I don't want a new card right now let alone from Synchrony.

[UncleB]

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@Venom911 wrote:

I don't need the upgrade that much, but I thought it  was better than a store card. however, I heard from a friend that they close the old account if you went for the upgrade. The store card is second oldest card so I don't want it closed. I called their customer service twice, the first one said they are gonna be the same account number, they'll just change it from a charge card to credit card. The second told me it's gonna be a new account while the store card will be kept open and that They can't combine the two cards for the same opening date due to some regulations. that's when I called the backdoor number for credit solution to get to the bottom of it, He transfered me to another AE CSR that told me it's gonna be a new account. At the end, I don't want a new card right now let alone from Synchrony.

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It will be a new account number for certain (there's no way around that).

As to if it will be a new trade line or not, that seems to be YMMV right now with Synchrony.  In the past many people reported getting hit with a new trade line with an upgrade (and sometimes even when getting a new account number due to a lost card), but lately there have been a few people who reported that they thought the history might have transferred over.  Personally I would like to read of more cases where people do keep their history before I consider that an across-the-board change has been made.

TL;DR, it's iffy right now and could go either way.  Hopefully some others with recent experience will be able to chime in on this thread.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Is it just me or does it strike anyone that by the time one gets an upgrade offer, we are udually past the point of ACTUALLY needing /wanting one , Lol. By that point most of us have already gotten other visa or mcs or an amex or disco. Funny sometimes to think how i wanted the Sams and Wally Mc at begining but im ok now with just my store cards

[ddemari]

from my experience when you accept the upgrade offer, they close out the retail tradeline and establish a new tradeline for the visa. The old store account with stay on your reports for 10 years with the positive payment history, but the new account tradeline with appear and might affect your AAOA. if you want the visa, then i would take it. the small ding will will eventually rebound.