I just opened an account with San DIego County Credit Union last week and i figured I would apply for a CC since it was the same credit pull. I did it in the branch so I waited for a response. It took the underwriters over an hour and a half to reach a decision and they were asking me questions the whole time about my amex accounts.
I was an AU user on my moms amex account since 2000 and then this year I got my own green card Amex and they backdated it to 2001.
The problem is I was not 18 years old in 2001 so they are wondering how I got approved for credit before I was 18. I didnt throw AMEX under the bus and say it was because of backdating on my acccount that i just opened this year. I figured underwriters could see how long this account has been active, not just the opened date.
The final decision was DECLINED because they couldnt understand how I have had credit since before I was 18. They told me I will also not be able to get a mortgage because of the same confusion. I dont know what to do at this point. Should I ask amex to update the real opened date? I am not too upset about the credit card account, because I don't need it, however, if I cannot get a mortgage because of this confusing AMEX situation, that is not good.
@dddfresh wrote:I just opened an account with San DIego County Credit Union last week and i figured I would apply for a CC since it was the same credit pull. I did it in the branch so I waited for a response. It took the underwriters over an hour and a half to reach a decision and they were asking me questions the whole time about my amex accounts.
I was an AU user on my moms amex account since 2000 and then this year I got my own green card Amex and they backdated it to 2001.
The problem is I was not 18 years old in 2001 so they are wondering how I got approved for credit before I was 18. I didnt throw AMEX under the bus and say it was because of backdating on my acccount that i just opened this year. I figured underwriters could see how long this account has been active, not just the opened date.
The final decision was DECLINED because they couldnt understand how I have had credit since before I was 18. They told me I will also not be able to get a mortgage because of the same confusion. I dont know what to do at this point. Should I ask amex to update the real opened date? I am not too upset about the credit card account, because I don't need it, however, if I cannot get a mortgage because of this confusing AMEX situation, that is not good.
Why didn't you just tell them you were an AU on your mom's account before you got your own? It's not like they don't know about Amex backdating. Being coy is not going to work when you were obviously under 18 at the time. It's perfectly OK to have been an AU on your mom's account and helped you establish good credit habits.
I was an AU on the account with my mom from 2000. I did tell them thats why it is on my report. However, the card i just received this year says "opened 2001" but I am not an AU on this card, its only my name. So i told the truth about being AU on the first card. Even in 2001 i was still a minor.
I was honest about being an AU. They couldnt wrap their heads around why I had a card in my name only (without an AU) before I turned 18.
OK thank you. I wasn't sure what to say. Ive never not been approved because of this. I am more concerned about the mortgage thing down the road, but I will definitely use that verbiage.
SDCCU isnt a small credit union, but it could be a new underwrite or not knowledgable of the amex backdating. The mortgage office could not understand it either though. Not making me confident in their services thats for sure
Sorry, I assumed that since you "didn't throw Amex under the bus about backdating" that you hadn't told them the account age was because of an AU. Sounds like the underwriter is inexperienced so they just figured there was something wrong with your account rather than the result of Amex reporting policy.
You could have pointed out that Amex is different from other issuers and issues AUs with seperate account numbers and tracks them seperately. I think that is a big part of why they sometimes backdate old AUs and not just old member accounts. You are already in there system and your spending is tracked.