Dillard's American Express upgrade to regular AMEX?

[LawStudentCivilis]

First, 

I have to say hello to everyone and thank everyone for the valuable information I've gained from browsing these forums.  I am a little surprised and a little suspicious at the overall positive posts about Chase. Their credit card side of handling things is horrible (coming from someone with absolutely no derogatory marks). Anyhow, I digress. I have a Dillard's American Express. I've had it for 5 years now and it is of absolutely no use to me.  Do you believe there is any possible way American Express would be willing to upgrade it into another card? I have seen such positive posts about American Express, great rewards programs, and customer service.  I am a little young (25), but luckily I started building my credit at 18 so I was able to clean house with a predatory card *cough cough* Chase!! But of course I kept my oldest card. Now that I've cleaned house and made things work favorably for me, it's hard to keep a Dillard's AMEX with a relatively high APR and 0 benefits.  Are there any backdoor numbers or any insight to American Express cobranded cards? I would love to have a "real" AMEX! Thank you in advance for your advice and help.

[TiggerDat]

There is no way to do that since the issuer is GE.  GE only uses the Amex label through a license with Amex.  So you get all the benefits of Amex, but not the true Amex relationship.  You would have to simply apply for an Amex card directly.  There is no backdoor way, since the backdoor simply goes to GE.  Make sure you pick the card you really want when you apply at Amex and good luck.

[LawStudentCivilis]

Thanks for the insight! Well I guess since it's old enough I'll just use it once a month or something. I just got a new card with Cap One to replace one of my Chase cards. I dont know if it'll be smart to apply for another. It'd be nice to have a real American Express though.  I don't want to drag down my AAoA so maybe I will wait.  

[TiggerDat]

---

@LawStudentCivilis wrote:

Thanks for the insight! Well I guess since it's old enough I'll just use it once a month or something. I just got a new card with Cap One to replace one of my Chase cards. I dont know if it'll be smart to apply for another. It'd be nice to have a real American Express though.  I don't want to drag down my AAoA so maybe I will wait.  

---

My AAoA is only 2 years and 5 months and they gave me one.  I also had 11 inquiries.  I did not get a high limit, but I did get the card.  It might have helped that I have a prepaid card with them.  I actually have not ever used the prepaid card, but it did get them to know that I am willing to simply put aside money.  Or it might just simply have been that I had some other good cards out there.  (I also closed my Merrick account, maybe that was it?)

[Creditaddict]

If dillads is not useful and you want the amex and the rewards make it worth it... TAKE IT NOW!

you worry about AA now but later you can add more Amex cards and not hurt your AA so it's a better long run...

Did you say Capital One to replace Chase?  While I don't usually like either that much, I can't imagine Capital One replacing a Chase! and you took 3 HP's for that, go get Amex, it will make me feel better about it

[LawStudentCivilis]

Trust me I did plenty of research! Let me break down my credit situation for you.

I had two CC's with Chase. My first one is a card that doesn't exist anymore, my first card ever, with a tiny CL.  My other card was Freedom I opened a few years later.  Well they shot up the APR to I believe 27.9% on the Freedom and refused to lower it despite my high CS and always on time payments! They were ugly about it too. The payments I made were not making a dent due to the high APR.  

SO I was able to upgrade my first/old card to a Freedom AND I was able to apply the entire CL of the first Freedom card  to this old card. This is a tremendous help since the card that originally had a very small CL is my oldest card. I opened a Capital ONe card originally to replace the CL of the original freedom, because before my extensive research I was unaware I could transfer CL between Chase cards.  Also Cap One has no foreign transaction fees (which helps especially considering I lived abroad last summer), and their APR is generally lower for their higher tiered cards. And their Customer service seems so much better than Chase, I'm sorry but Chase truly treats you as if you're disposable. Plus the Cap ONe card I have is a high tiered Cash Rewards card. 

So there's my story. I now have a newly upgraded Chase Freedom and did not lose any of my CL with Chase because this card now  has the entire CL I had with Chase. New Cap One card adding additional CL to my overall utilization. Then the homely Dillards AMEX, that helps with my AAoA. 

So if I can add additional American Express cards all dates apply retroactively to the first card I opened?

[LawStudentCivilis]

I forgot to mention I have 0 credit inquiries on EX and TU and 4 on Equifax (but two fall off in the next couple of months).  So the credit pull of all three did not and will not effect me. Thanks for the help and please elaborate about adding additional AMEX wont matter?

[Anonymous]

Just curious what happend with Chase? They've been just as good as Amex imo, but imo UR points are MUCH more valuable than MR points.

[LawStudentCivilis]

Hi Allee,

I have no idea. Mind you I'm a very thorough person because I do not like to plead ignorance or make excuses for myself. And no I do not think their service is that great, atleast on the credit side it is not.  I had a lot of problems closing my card as well. 1) they held onto my payment from my Chase checking account longer than they were suppose to. 2) when it came time to transferring the entire credit limit to the older card I was suddenly told it was not possible.  This is after I was guaranteed I would be able to! I had to contact EO just to get the CL transferred, close it out, and get my UR reward points transferred to the newly upgraded to Freedom. 

[Creditaddict]

What's limit on Dilards?

Limit on Capital One?

What Amex would you like to apply for?