topic Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear? in Credit Cards

What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:58:36 GMT

So I have 2 Amex revolvers, both backdated until 2006. One is the American Express Blue Cash, the other is the Clear. I don't really use either now that I got a Premier Rewards Gold to act as my Amex-only card. I tried to PC the Clear but get shot down everytime. The Blue Cash is at 5k, the Clear is at 5.2k lines. Should I just keep things as is? Should I call and close the Clear and consolidate the line to make a $10,200 Blue Cash? I figure the saying that higher credit lines lead to higher future credit lines would help. Anything negative to worry about scoring wise? I'm sure I'll take a short term hit for the card closure but I'd rather be proactive and consolidate instead of them closing it down for inactivity.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

pizzadude — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:21:51 GMT

I think that AMEX is better than most companies about not closing idle cards, so if you decided to do nothing I think it would remain open.

Your idea to combine CLs and close it is also a good idea, if you want to bump your CLs higher, it help get you there.

You wouldn't be hurt by closing the CL unless your overall %util increased as a result of losing the CL, but if you get it reallocated to your other AMEX there should be no negative affects.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

birjest — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:20:19 GMT

I second that. If they don't close it out and won't allow you to combine them, atleast your uti% would be sitting pretty good.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:36:34 GMT

i'll take it off your hands ^_^

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

learnin113 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:55:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So I have 2 Amex revolvers, both backdated until 2006. One is the American Express Blue Cash, the other is the Clear. I don't really use either now that I got a Premier Rewards Gold to act as my Amex-only card. I tried to PC the Clear but get shot down everytime. The Blue Cash is at 5k, the Clear is at 5.2k lines. Should I just keep things as is? Should I call and close the Clear and consolidate the line to make a $10,200 Blue Cash? I figure the saying that higher credit lines lead to higher future credit lines would help. Anything negative to worry about scoring wise? I'm sure I'll take a short term hit for the card closure but I'd rather be proactive and consolidate instead of them closing it down for inactivity.

What I wouldn't do to have your problems. Like seriously? Any hit to your credit from consolidating would be temporary, but I'm sure you already know that.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:14:53 GMT

AMEX does not consolidate lines anymore. At least that's what they have told me 3 times. They said they used to do it and can "put a request" in but generally it is always shot down. They are moving away from that from what the rep informed me as well.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:48:22 GMT

Update

I called today during work and spoke to a nice rep who was able to help me. At first she tried to move over 5k from the Cleare to the Blue Cash to make it an even 10k line but it came back with an error that said the lowest line possible to be kept on a card is $500. Then I realized that I have 2,275 Clear points and at 2,500 I would get another $25 gift card. It's not much but hey I would hate to forfeit 2,275 points. So I kept the Clear open for the time being, went home and ordered $225 worth of Costco gift cards. I'll wait for those points to point, get my $25 Clear rewards card, then either cancel or just keep it in the sockdrawer and not really care if they end up closing it since I'll be losing a $500 line. I'll keep the Blue Cash open by putting my Netflix or something on it and set it to autopay.

I just hate the fact that my Blue Cash shows a CL of $9,700 and wish they could've just given me a courtesy bump up to $10,000, lol.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Scuba — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:33:24 GMT

Even though I have closed a few cards lately, I do have a few AMEX cards because I want an immediate 10+ year history.

If it was me, I'd keep the card until I could get a better card from them and then they will back-date that card to help your AAOA.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 02:39:35 GMT

@Scuba wrote:

Even though I have closed a few cards lately, I do have a few AMEX cards because I want an immediate 10+ year history.

If it was me, I'd keep the card until I could get a better card from them and then they will back-date that card to help your AAOA.

Not to hijack this thread too much.. but what do they backdate to? The original opening date (mm/yyyy) of your first account?

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

pizzadude — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:30:37 GMT

AMEX backdates to the Year of your first opened account.

Any card opened after that shows a dated opened of the actual month it was
Opened, with the year of the member since date.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:31:04 GMT

@Scuba wrote:

Even though I have closed a few cards lately, I do have a few AMEX cards because I want an immediate 10+ year history.

If it was me, I'd keep the card until I could get a better card from them and then they will back-date that card to help your AAOA.

The thing is that I have all the cards from them that appeal to me. Have the Blue Cash, have the Premier Rewards. Even had a Platinum before I canceled it out of dissatisfaction with them promising me 50,000 points and then only giving me 25,000. The only one that I would consider is the Costco True Earnings and only for the sake of consolidating my Costco membership into 1 card and even then it would only be used at Costco and gas. My member since date with them is only 2006 so it's not like it would add a ton of years and as it stands on my reports I already have 4 cards with them with 6 years of history. In the sock drawer it goes!

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:49:27 GMT

@pizzadude wrote:
AMEX backdates to the Year of your first opened account.

Any card opened after that shows a dated opened of the actual month it was
Opened, with the year of the member since date.

Aww, man! Wish I'd gotten a Zync in december.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

getahead — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 07:06:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Update

I called today during work and spoke to a nice rep who was able to help me. At first she tried to move over 5k from the Cleare to the Blue Cash to make it an even 10k line but it came back with an error that said the lowest line possible to be kept on a card is $500. Then I realized that I have 2,275 Clear points and at 2,500 I would get another $25 gift card. It's not much but hey I would hate to forfeit 2,275 points. So I kept the Clear open for the time being, went home and ordered $225 worth of Costco gift cards. I'll wait for those points to point, get my $25 Clear rewards card, then either cancel or just keep it in the sockdrawer and not really care if they end up closing it since I'll be losing a $500 line. I'll keep the Blue Cash open by putting my Netflix or something on it and set it to autopay.

I just hate the fact that my Blue Cash shows a CL of $9,700 and wish they could've just given me a courtesy bump up to $10,000, lol.

wow, I so wish I could sd a amex card, one day.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:53:30 GMT

@getahead wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Update

I called today during work and spoke to a nice rep who was able to help me. At first she tried to move over 5k from the Cleare to the Blue Cash to make it an even 10k line but it came back with an error that said the lowest line possible to be kept on a card is $500. Then I realized that I have 2,275 Clear points and at 2,500 I would get another $25 gift card. It's not much but hey I would hate to forfeit 2,275 points. So I kept the Clear open for the time being, went home and ordered $225 worth of Costco gift cards. I'll wait for those points to point, get my $25 Clear rewards card, then either cancel or just keep it in the sockdrawer and not really care if they end up closing it since I'll be losing a $500 line. I'll keep the Blue Cash open by putting my Netflix or something on it and set it to autopay.

I just hate the fact that my Blue Cash shows a CL of $9,700 and wish they could've just given me a courtesy bump up to $10,000, lol.
wow, I so wish I could sd a amex card, one day.

You'll get there soon. My credit wasn't great out of college while looking for a job. Even had a BoA close by credit grantor with a $9,000 balance on it after it reported 60 days late for 3 months. I think my score hit a low of around 620 or so. But after that day I put everything on auto pay, took advantage of the 30-60 day float to get by, and just let the payment draw from my account. I didn't worry about balance reporting or paying down my balance to a certain percentage to report a certain utilization. I told myself that I would allow myself to pay interest on that 1 card only and the rest would become PIF. I was fortunate that even after the card was closed that my other lenders didn't do AA. I still have a balance left of around $3,500 but in less than 2 years my score went from 620s or so to 760 and that's only because I just took on a auto lease for my wife, and added 3 cards to my portfolio in the last 5 months.

Re: What to do with a useless American Express Clear?

Smug — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:19:48 GMT

I opened mine last year for that reason