Closing AMEX question

[Anonymous]

Hello all, I have a AMEX Gold card  since 2005 which I had through my AMeriprise Brokerage accounts....since then ameriprise has come out with there own card (which I have) and we were getitng the AMEX without a fee for a few years, last year i paid the fee to keep the AMEX, this year i don't want to pay the fee, i have tried to get rid of the fee but all they can do is lower it and as i'm not really using all my cards much id rather not pay the fee.  unfortunately they cannot transfer my account seamlessly to another card that does not have a fee, i would have to close my account and apply for a new AMEX blue.  Would this effect my credit report negatively, they say that I will still be an AMEX member since 05 and my history will be transferred over, but on my credit report it will list a closed account and a new account opened.

I have my Ameriprise Gold MC since 7/2009

Citibank Platinum MC since 7/2007

BOA Visa 3/2006

Chase Visa 5/2006

BOA Mastercard 7/2004

Discover 10/06 (discover has about 600 balance (took advantage of 0% for 6 months to buy a desk)

all others with 0 balances b/c i got out of credit card debt in the past few years...

I feel like it is not a good idea to open a new card just to stay with AMEX b/c i'm not really using it.but its one of my older cards so i don't know if cancelling is a good idea, i'm fine with opening a new one if it keeps my history intact, but am unsure what to do....

any help is appreciated, thanks!

My credit scores when i got my mortgage in april were EQ 788, EX 794, and TU 769..

I

[haulingthescoreup]

I did the same thing after my first free year, one month before the fee was due. I opened the Blue first, and then I closed the Gold. The Blue is backdated.

You'll get an inq on Experian, but you won't have a new account ding. Depending on how old your AAoA is, having another 2005 card might help or hurt, but I don't think it would be a huge impact.

I'd advise waiting until January to open the second card. It will have an opening date of Jan 05 instead of Dec 05, making it 11 months older. (Heads up to anyone considering adding an additional card --wait 3 weeks. )

It's your decision as to whether to open another card or not. I don't use my Blue all that much, but I do like to use it for online orders, because if something gets goobered up, AmEx's customer service is great for this sort of thing.

btw, if you're already a member of Costco, and paying their membership fee, the AmEx Costco card has great rewards, much better IMO than any of their others.

[score_building]

With Amex there is no reason to PC just close the one with a fee that doesn't suit you anymore and apply for the no-fee amex card  you chose.

As the rep indicated you keep the history so you'll have 2 acounts reporting from 2005 which will help your AAoA.  The closed acct still reports up to 10 yrs after closure, so it will continue to benefit your AAoA.  The Gold is a no preset limit card which generally doesn't factor into UTI (except w/ TU98) so it should not negatively affect UTI either if you have any balances on other cards. It is a win/win just close Gold and reopen an amex credit card with no fee.

+1 to HTSU who taught us it pays to wait until Jan. in these instances