AMEX BLUE: Apply now or in January?

[Anonymous]

i have a green charge card that i opened in feb of this year. a am getting pre-approval offers for the blue card. i would like to apply now but if i wait til jan will they give me a whole years worth of credit history with the new blue card. ie: showing the opening date as 01/08?

[ozgirl]

I am always wary when it comes to Amex because everything I have read indicates they closely monitor your every move--and don't like to see you accumulate cards (even their own!). We recently upgraded to a Platinum after they continually tempted us when we logged into our account. I was worried at first as our credit was not "stellar" because of somethings that happened 2 years ago. Nevertheless, Amex upgraded us to Platinum without a hitch. I have been tempted by some of their other products but have decided to lay low for a while. Amex is great as long as you don't make them nervous. Oh yes...and one other thing. I have noticed that despite everything I have read about how the CB view/evaluate Amex charge cards, when our balance gets high our Transunion suffers--just an observation.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@Anonymous wrote:

i have a green charge card that i opened in feb of this year. a am getting pre-approval offers for the blue card. i would like to apply now but if i wait til jan will they give me a whole years worth of credit history with the new blue card. ie: showing the opening date as 01/08?

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Yes, it will. I got my Gold in March, and I'm waiting until January 09 to add a card, despite the fact that they flash a different pre-approval on my screen every week, it seems.

This way, you get a new card without a new account ding. Pretty sweet.

I'll find some innocuous recurring charge to put on it, and otherwise pick it up with the barbecue tongs and place it gently in the sock drawer.

[haulingthescoreup]

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@ozgirl wrote:

.... Oh yes...and one other thing. I have noticed that despite everything I have read about how the CB view/evaluate Amex charge cards, when our balance gets high our Transunion suffers--just an observation.

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We still have the older TU score formula here. They are in the process of replacing it, now that that half the country has finally switched over to the newer version (TU 04? I can never remember the year. Not FICO 08, though.)

The older TU score does not handle charge cards properly, although EQ and EX do. Once they finally get the updated version in here, this should stop happening.