topic Re: AMEX Conversion? in Credit Cards

AMEX Conversion?

Joeychgo — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 20:36:53 GMT

I have an AMEX green and a Gold.

I have a few questions. Do they let me convert those cards to others like the blue cash everyday or a hilton honors?

Second question -- if they do, would it show up as a new account and closed account or would it just pick up where the old card left off? I am concerned about my credit age as these are 2 of my oldest cards.

Re: AMEX Conversion?

wasCB14 — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 20:47:02 GMT

@Joeychgo wrote:
I have an AMEX green and a Gold.

I have a few questions. Do they let me convert those cards to others like the blue cash everyday or a hilton honors?

Second question -- if they do, would it show up as a new account and closed account or would it just pick up where the old card left off? I am concerned about my credit age as these are 2 of my oldest cards.

Cards in a "family" can only be PCed within that family.

With Green and Gold your only other option is Platinum.

Blue Cash Everyday can become BCP or Cash Magnet.

Hilton cards can only become other Hilton cards, Delta cards can only become other Delta cards.

etc.

Product changes keep cards open with the original opening date (or original backdated opening date).

Re: AMEX Conversion?

Joeychgo — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 20:46:12 GMT

Got it. So my choices are keep paying $400 a year for cards I dont really use or lose time on my average credit age

Re: AMEX Conversion?

FinStar — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 20:48:32 GMT

@Joeychgo wrote:
I have an AMEX green and a Gold.

I have a few questions. Do they let me convert those cards to others like the blue cash everyday or a hilton honors?

Second question -- if they do, would it show up as a new account and closed account or would it just pick up where the old card left off? I am concerned about my credit age as these are 2 of my oldest cards.

Short answer - no. Charge cards cannot be PC'd to revolvers, like BCE or Hilton Honors or viceversa.

Charge cards like Platinum can be downgraded to Gold, and Gold to Green and viceversa after having them for at least the 1st year. I would evaluate what your ultimate goal is depending on whether you are looking to stay in the MR ecosystem or consider whether cashback or other travel rewards are of importance.

Re: AMEX Conversion?

FinStar — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 20:50:31 GMT

@Joeychgo wrote:
Got it. So my choices are keep paying $400 a year for cards I dont really use or lose time on my average credit age

You'd have to evaluate whether a downgrade makes sense or your desire is to simplify things.

Re: AMEX Conversion?

Joeychgo — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 20:52:01 GMT

@FinStar wrote:
@Joeychgo wrote:
Got it. So my choices are keep paying $400 a year for cards I dont really use or lose time on my average credit age
You'd have to evaluate whether a downgrade makes sense or your desire is to simplify things.

Thats what I am trying to do. I'm paying $400 a year for 2 cards I rarely use and dont really need. But, they are both cards that are among my oldest cards so canceling them would affect my average credit age.

Re: AMEX Conversion?

FinStar — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 21:01:03 GMT

@Joeychgo wrote:
@FinStar wrote:
@Joeychgo wrote:
Got it. So my choices are keep paying $400 a year for cards I dont really use or lose time on my average credit age
You'd have to evaluate whether a downgrade makes sense or your desire is to simplify things.

Thats what I am trying to do. I'm paying $400 a year for 2 cards I rarely use and dont really need. But, they are both cards that are among my oldest cards so canceling them would affect my average credit age.

Canceling these should not have an effect on your credit age (AAoA), from a FICO scoring perspective, for up to ~10 years. They will still be factored in your AAoA until they go *poof*. Once they fall of your CRs, potentially yes, but it largely depends on what your overall profile will look like at that point.

Re: AMEX Conversion?

KJinNC — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 21:01:37 GMT

Canceling them would not affect your credit age any time soon.

Positive accounts stay on your credit reports and continue to count for age for ~10 years after being closed. So, closing them would not affect your account age until approximately 2031, by which time it probably won't matter, though that's difficult to predict.

However, if you got new cards to make up for closing these, that would reduce your account ages due to the new accounts being added.

Re: AMEX Conversion?

Trikoret — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 21:06:27 GMT

@Joeychgo wrote:
Got it. So my choices are keep paying $400 a year for cards I dont really use or lose time on my average credit age

Ask for a retention on either both cards or only one. I would just close one and keep the other open if they give your a good retention to keep card. I'd take gold over green since it's going to have 240 worth of credits between GrubHub and Uber. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Re: AMEX Conversion?

K-in-Boston — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 02:57:09 GMT

If you've had these for a while, why did Membership Rewards charge cards make sense for you previously but don't today and going forward?

If these oldest cards are actually fairly new, in about 10 years when they fell off of your reports it's unlikely to really matter whatsoever if you're measuring oldest cards by months rather than a number of years.

Re: AMEX Conversion?

Joeychgo — Sun, 17 Jan 2021 05:05:14 GMT

@Trikoret wrote:
@Joeychgo wrote:
Got it. So my choices are keep paying $400 a year for cards I dont really use or lose time on my average credit age
Ask for a retention on either both cards or only one. I would just close one and keep the other open if they give your a good retention to keep card. I'd take gold over green since it's going to have 240 worth of credits between GrubHub and Uber. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Retention?