topic Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts. in Credit Cards

Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 12:39:05 GMT

Recently I recieved a new Belk MC in the mail. I have have had an account for over 10 years with them and always had the SNYC card. Well the other day I looked online and they closed the SYNC account and I just had the MC acount. My AAoA is going to take a nice hit because of this. The bad thing is I was just keeping it for the AAoA.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

UncleB — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 14:30:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Recently I recieved a new Belk MC in the mail. I have have had an account for over 10 years with them and always had the SNYC card. Well the other day I looked online and they closed the SYNC account and I just had the MC acount. My AAoA is going to take a nice hit because of this. The bad thing is I was just keeping it for the AAoA.

Oh wow; this is notable for two reasons.

For one, as far as I know this is the first Belk upgrade we've read about. Until now the only way to get the Belk MasterCard was to apply for it outright.

Secondly, I've been keeping my own Belk card for the same reason as you. In my case it's my second-oldest card (Lowe's is my oldest) but at 13 years I really don't want to lose the history, even if the old account will continue to report for up to 10 years. I just checked my online dashboard and there's no mention of an upgrade... yet.

Synchrony upgraded my CareCredit to the MasterCard "Dual Card", but in that case I did have the chance to opt-out if I wanted. I'm disappointed that Synch didn't give you the chance with Belk.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

FinStar — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 14:59:10 GMT

For some reason I was thinking you had the Belk MC @UncleB. I guess I assumed wrong 😜

It is my understanding, though, all SYNCB upgrades are preceeded with either some form of correspondence or notification of some sort to opt-out of the upgrade if it's not something that a customer wants. Not sure if they still do the online pop-up where you can accept or reject the upgrade these days.

So, the Belk MC is on my radar (used to have the store version many moons ago), and hopefully they'll upgrade CareCredit and JCP to the MC versions. The downside, of course is the new account hit.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 15:04:22 GMT

I didn't request it, it just showed up in the mail. The only other thing that I think might have been a factor is that I am at the elite rewards level.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

UncleB — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 16:07:43 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
For some reason I was thinking you had the Belk MC @UncleB. I guess I assumed wrong 😜

It is my understanding, though, all SYNCB upgrades are preceeded with either some form of correspondence or notification of some sort to opt-out of the upgrade if it's not something that a customer wants. Not sure if they still do the online pop-up where you can accept or reject the upgrade these days.

So, the Belk MC is on my radar (used to have the store version many moons ago), and hopefully they'll upgrade CareCredit and JCP to the MC versions. The downside, of course is the new account hit.

I was thinking they usually reached-out with a letter first as well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If they happen to offer me the upgrade (and I have a choice) I'm honestly not sure what I'll do. As my second-oldest credit card (13 years) I planned to keep it open indefinitely, and it's doubtful the MC version would serve me better than the PLCC anyway. On the other hand, having it as a MC would make it easier to use during those 'dry spells' when I'm not making many Belk purchases (so I wouldn't have to worry about it being closed for non-use).

Since my oldest account is Lowe's (15 years) and there's little chance of Synchrony having a co-brand due to the Lowe's Amex at least I'm safe with that one not changing.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

AverageJoesCredit — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:44:40 GMT

Op wont feel the aaoa hit for up to 10 years or more.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

KJinNC — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 17:58:02 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Op wont feel the aaoa hit for up to 10 years or more.

He has a new account he didn't want, though he does still have the old account showing up for 10 years.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

Anonymous — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 18:05:10 GMT

Yes, I got a new account which actually would put me into 5/24 I think.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

FinStar — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 23:33:49 GMT

Yes, the new account would count toward the 5/24 restriction. Which is unfortunate if you were saving the slot and the new account placed you over the threshold.

Of noteworthy, if you are a Chase banking customer, there's always that possibility that any in-branch pre-approval offers could circumvent 5/24 for their core CCs. No guarantees, but maybe an option.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 00:47:49 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
Yes, the new account would count toward the 5/24 restriction. Which is unfortunate if you were saving the slot and the new account placed you over the threshold.

Of noteworthy, if you are a Chase banking customer, there's always that possibility that any in-branch pre-approval offers could circumvent 5/24 for their core CCs. No guarantees, but maybe an option.

I would think in the case of Chase that you could call recon and easily explain what happened. They'll be able to see the old account closed and the new account issued. Nobody is going to intentionally close such an old account and then turn around and open a new one.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

FinStar — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 01:08:42 GMT

Not in this case, unfortunately. Previously, there was that option. To Chase, it's a new account regardless of how one presents it, plus they're not going to be complacent with an explanation of another lender's upgrade policies. AU's on the other hand are much easier to explain as there's evidence that supports that exception.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 11:10:11 GMT

I read the fine print last night and it did state that with this upgrade your other account will close. They also did have the option of opting out of the upgrade.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

FinStar — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 14:45:41 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I read the fine print last night and it did state that with this upgrade your other account will close. They also did have the option of opting out of the upgrade.

So, based on the above statement, it appears that you did receive some notification of the MC upgrade, but did not review it thoroughly in order to opt-out.

By and large, SYNCB tends to be pretty good with these notifications, whether online or snail mail to provide folks the option. The only downside, it doesn't clarify that the upgraded version will be reported as a new account on the CRAs.

Re: Belk upgraded my card to a MC and closes one of my older accounts.

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Jul 2019 14:49:18 GMT

The only notification I recieved was on the mailer that included the new card.