@Anonymous wrote:
@fltireguy wrote:
It stays on your file with AMEX for a very long time though...
Is that the same file as my credit report?
No. The credit report you are thinking of is actually three separate reports, each with a different company: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The reports might have exactly the same information on them, or they might differ in some respects.
When Fltireguy refers to your file with Amex, he means Amex's private database of people who have screwed them over in the past.
Here's an analogy that may help. A given state might have laws that say a teenager can have his criminal record expunged (erased) when he turns 18. So after he is 18 it looks like he had never committed a crime as a teenager, even thought he might have been arrested many times for stealing from the local Walmart.
But just because his criminal record gets erased, that doesn't mean that this Walmart's manager's memory gets magically erased. He still remembers quite vividly the thefts that happened to his store. So he's still not going to give that kid a job as a 19 year old, because he remembers all the crap he pulled.
The kid's criminal record is like your three credit reports, a public record. The laws that govern when things fall off are like the 18 year old's record being expunged. But just because the credit reports don't show a way that you hurt Amex in the past, it doesn't mean Amex is going to forget about it.
