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Hi everyone,
Has anyone had any experience moving or reallocating a portion of their Visa credit line to the Travel Rewards AMEX with PenFed? I've read a few conflicting things, but a couple of the CSRs I spoke with told me the same thing: To do so, I would have to apply for a CLI on the AMEX card over the phone, specifying to the CSR to notate on the application that I would like to "decrease my Visa credit line and increase my Amex line." (They all used this similar language, which does not mean they are technically "moving" it - is there a legal reason for this?)
They also all indicated that this is an almost guaranteed success, as I am not changing my overall credit limit with PenFed. This part makes sense. However, they also said I would incur a hard pull for the application. So this is the part that's confusing to me: if PenFed's net credit exposure to me does not change, why would they need to review my credit? Is this a legal fotrmality of some sort that I'm missing? They all told me that a Visa to Visa CL move does not require a new application, but a Visa to Amex one (or vice versa) would.
The reason I'm concerned is because this is a new account (only 2 weeks old and based on a hard pull from a couple of months ago - not a fresh one). I've also had some changes in my Equifax report that might be consequential: my federal student loans are reporting a balance of $0 (presumably due to a recent DirectLoan account servicing change), and I allowed a few cards to report balances this month, and I usually PIF.
What are the possibilities that I'll have to undergo the hassle of a FR based on this "appication"? Have others taken the hard pull to do this as well, or is there another way to accomplish the credit line move? My credit lines are: $5,000 (AMEX) and $11,500 (Platinum Rewards Visa).
Thanks in advance for any insigt on this - you guys are great!
@colline wrote:Hi everyone,
Has anyone had any experience moving or reallocating a portion of their Visa credit line to the Travel Rewards AMEX with PenFed? I've read a few conflicting things, but a couple of the CSRs I spoke with told me the same thing: To do so, I would have to apply for a CLI on the AMEX card over the phone, specifying to the CSR to notate on the application that I would like to "decrease my Visa credit line and increase my Amex line." (They all used this similar language, which does not mean they are technically "moving" it - is there a legal reason for this?)
They also all indicated that this is an almost guaranteed success, as I am not changing my overall credit limit with PenFed. This part makes sense. However, they also said I would incur a hard pull for the application. So this is the part that's confusing to me: if PenFed's net credit exposure to me does not change, why would they need to review my credit? Is this a legal fotrmality of some sort that I'm missing? They all told me that a Visa to Visa CL move does not require a new application, but a Visa to Amex one (or vice versa) would.
The reason I'm concerned is because this is a new account (only 2 weeks old and based on a hard pull from a couple of months ago - not a fresh one). I've also had some changes in my Equifax report that might be consequential: my federal student loans are reporting a balance of $0 (presumably due to a recent DirectLoan account servicing change), and I allowed a few cards to report balances this month, and I usually PIF.
What are the possibilities that I'll have to undergo the hassle of a FR based on this "appication"? Have others taken the hard pull to do this as well, or is there another way to accomplish the credit line move? My credit lines are: $5,000 (AMEX) and $11,500 (Platinum Rewards Visa).
Thanks in advance for any insigt on this - you guys are great!
I've had great experiences with PenFed in moving CL to another card and even using a CL of an existing card to open a new card. In both cases I did not receive and additional pull and it was basically guaranteed.
+1
Ray
Thanks for your responses. PenFed does say they can reallocate between Visa products without a hard pull -- my question is whether you have done so from a Visa to AMEX or vice versa.
Is that what you've done previously? If so, when was this? (I recently had called Citi about a product change and the CSR cited the newly-enacted CARD Act as the reason this was no longer possible, so getting a sense of when this was would be helpful.)
@colline wrote:Thanks for your responses. PenFed does say they can reallocate between Visa products without a hard pull -- my question is whether you have done so from a Visa to AMEX or vice versa.
Is that what you've done previously? If so, when was this? (I recently had called Citi about a product change and the CSR cited the newly-enacted CARD Act as the reason this was no longer possible, so getting a sense of when this was would be helpful.)
I did Visa to Visa about a year ago with no problems at all. Not sure about Visa to Amex tho not sure what the issue would be if its a PenFed card to a PenFed card.
Why wouln't they? The card is their product, not a product of AMEX. They can do as they please (so to speak) with their products...
I have no experience w/PenFed; however, since you now have balances reporting, you might want to wait until they are zeroed out again -- depending on the %util. If they are pulling your CR, it seems to me that it's not a sure thing. If it were simply a PC/account change, it seems like they'd just do it.
I could be wrong... as I said, I have no exp w/them. But it does seem like you're opening yourself up to some exposure since you now have balances reporting that weren't when they checked your credit and approved you. If it were me, I'd wait until the CR were reporting <9% again, just to be on the safe side.
OP - call them and ask! They are nice to work with...
Then, please let us know the result. Their AMEX has some really nice travel bennies.
Ray