How soon is too soon to apply for second Amex card, and which one would be good for me?

[Ron1]

You may want to wait to apply for another Amex after getting auto loan.

Ron.

[Creditaddict]

The fact you started with the credit card vs charge and were approved, I don't see any negative to add a charge card, amex loves to give out charge cards more than credit cards

[haulingthescoreup]

Have you crunched the numbers to see what a third AmEx with an opening date of 1995 will do to your AAoA? Remember to add the ages of every account on each report (one report at a time), whether open or closed, from the opening month and year to this year.

What was it before the new cards? In other words, it dropped from what to what?

I would be surprised to see much of a points loss in going from 8 years AAoA, for instance, to 6 years. Depends on what it was when it started. You don't lose points in just dropping a year or two, unless it drops you into a new history range, for instance, under 2 years, 2 years to under 5 years, 5 years to under maybe 8 or 9 years, etc. (Lots of debate about the break points beyond 2 and 5 years.)

I think what you're actually being hit for is the presence of 3 brand-spanking-new accounts on your reports, rather than the drop in AAoA. You should slowly regain points over the coming months, but it's generally more like 6 months before you are back to where you were before. Not necessarily, but in most cases.

You might have your points back by the end of the year; you might not. How cast iron is it that you must get an auto loan at the end of the year? In other words, would February 2011 work?

Again, you might get your points back by the end of the year just from the new accounts aging. But I'm not convinced that another AmEx will do the trick.

Granted, an additional back-dated AmEx won't show as a new account, but I also don't think that you're going to get any significant point increase simply for increased AAoA.

[MS00000000]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Have you crunched the numbers to see what a third AmEx with an opening date of 1995 will do to your AAoA? Remember to add the ages of every account on each report (one report at a time), whether open or closed, from the opening month and year to this year.

What was it before the new cards? In other words, it dropped from what to what?

I would be surprised to see much of a points loss in going from 8 years AAoA, for instance, to 6 years. Depends on what it was when it started. You don't lose points in just dropping a year or two, unless it drops you into a new history range, for instance, under 2 years, 2 years to under 5 years, 5 years to under maybe 8 or 9 years, etc. (Lots of debate about the break points beyond 2 and 5 years.)

I think what you're actually being hit for is the presence of 3 brand-spanking-new accounts on your reports, rather than the drop in AAoA. You should slowly regain points over the coming months, but it's generally more like 6 months before you are back to where you were before. Not necessarily, but in most cases.

You might have your points back by the end of the year; you might not. How cast iron is it that you must get an auto loan at the end of the year? In other words, would February 2011 work?

Again, you might get your points back by the end of the year just from the new accounts aging. But I'm not convinced that another AmEx will do the trick.

Granted, an additional back-dated AmEx won't show as a new account, but I also don't think that you're going to get any significant point increase simply for increased AAoA.

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It was at 9 something before the new cards, and is 6 something now.  Adding an additional AMEX would bring it back up to 8 something if my math is correct. You might be correct that the drop is due to the new accounts though. I was basing my theory on the "What's hurting your score" section that just now indicated a short credit history where it never indicated that previously.

Was planning on the end of the year for the auto loan because dealers are dumping cars like crazy for year end numbers, so February wouldn't be as ideal as far as the price of the car I don't think. It's not set in stone that I have to get one though. I was actually preparing for this at the end of last year and realized it would be stupid to buy a car when I didn't have a house yet, so I worked on getting the house instead. Now that the new year has rolled around, I'm looking at the car again.

I'll crunch the numbers one more time and see what the AAoA would be after adding another backdated Amex and see if it's over 8 or not, but I think it would be.  If the Amex is backdated, would the FICO scoring still consider it a new account even though it shows the age back to 1995? That seems odd, but I'm new to the whole FICO game so I am not surprised at anything with the scoring.

[haulingthescoreup]

Worth running the numbers. Wow, that was a heckuva drop, from 9 to 6!

No, a newly added back-dated AmEx account would not be regarded as a new account. In fact, I'm not even sure that people get a Scorewatch alert for this, although I've heard both ways.

It's possible that your points loss breaks out to something like 3-5 points for getting rebucketed to 5 - under 9 years AAoA (if indeed that's a new score bucket), and the rest was for the new accounts. You might well have your points back in time.

I don't know if you're familiar with the "util game", where you time your CC payments to tweak maximum points from your FICO's. Since you're aiming for a specific score, it would be worth doing this. You should aim for having only one CC reporting a balance when your score is pulled for a loan, and that balance should be some token amount like $20 or so. It can take a while to get cards to line up and behave for this, so I wouldn't wait until the very last minute. Be sure to have one reporting a balance. I lost 12 points a couple weeks ago on EQ for going from 1 card with a balance to none.

[MS00000000]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:

Worth running the numbers. Wow, that was a heckuva drop, from 9 to 6!

No, a newly added back-dated AmEx account would not be regarded as a new account. In fact, I'm not even sure that people get a Scorewatch alert for this, although I've heard both ways.

It's possible that your points loss breaks out to something like 3-5 points for getting rebucketed to 5 - under 9 years AAoA (if indeed that's a new score bucket), and the rest was for the new accounts. You might well have your points back in time.

I don't know if you're familiar with the "util game", where you time your CC payments to tweak maximum points from your FICO's. Since you're aiming for a specific score, it would be worth doing this. You should aim for having only one CC reporting a balance when your score is pulled for a loan, and that balance should be some token amount like $20 or so. It can take a while to get cards to line up and behave for this, so I wouldn't wait until the very last minute. Be sure to have one reporting a balance. I lost 12 points a couple weeks ago on EQ for going from 1 card with a balance to none.

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Yes, it was a big drop. Just calculated and it was 9.85 and now is 6.83. I assume the FICO score rounds down.  If I add an Amex this month, it will bring it back up to 7 something, and best case scenario, just barely an 8 by December. It's so close. I don't really understand the "buckets" I've read about, so not sure if it will help but I was thinking it wouldn't hurt if I was approved.  

I've read about the timing of payments I think. Charge up, but PIF before the statements cut so they report with zero balance, yes? Except for the one. Is there some benefit to having a token amount like $20 showing on one as opposed to having that one report a higher balance if the utility is still only 7 or 8% of total CL?

[alvinsl]

fyi.  in august i applied for both the Green and the Zync cards within 5 days of each other.  Was approved for both.

[Creditaddict]

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@alvinsl wrote:

fyi.  in august i applied for both the Green and the Zync cards within 5 days of each other.  Was approved for both.

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Why a Green and a Zync?

[MS00000000]

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@Creditaddict wrote:

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@alvinsl wrote:

fyi.  in august i applied for both the Green and the Zync cards within 5 days of each other.  Was approved for both.

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Why a Green and a Zync?

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Yes, why a Green and a Zync, and did you apply online for both or phone, or?

[alvinsl]

curiosity. i'd been trying to get an amex card for over two years. after being approved for the green i couldn't resist the temptation to apply for the zync (this was the card i really wanted). i didn't really expect to get an approval since i'd been turn down 4 times in the last three years. but since i only had 4 inq and my cr was finally clear of any negative info, i decided to try. i applied online (instant approval on both).