how long to activate?

[Anonymous]

I am expecting an amex in the mail, but it will go to my mom's house, since I'm out of the country.

I won't be able to pick it up til mid-July.

I can't wait that long to activate it, can I?

I'm a little worried about leaving an activated credit card with my mother. Believe me, I have my reasons.

[thrasher865]

Did you apply for this while you were out of the country?  If so...  why?

I think waiting a few weeks to activate shouldn't be a problem.

If that's not the case, call AMEX and talk to somebody.  Maybe they can activate the card and then freeze the account until you call and request to re-open it.  Or you can probably just inform them it will be a few weeks until you can activate it.

Message Edited by thrasher865 on 06-17-2008 06:23 AM

[Anonymous]

I've been living in japan for the last few years, but I'm moving back to the US next month. Living here I'd stopped using cc's, so my credit was not so hot. I wanted to get it up before I went back, and started school. I told amex all of that and they were fine with it, they just said they'd need to mail it to a us address, so I gave them my moms, since I don't have a grad school address yet.

I may call them and ask, that's a good idea. I should have asked when I talked to them the first time.

Message Edited by pjxf99 on 06-17-2008 06:41 AM

[thrasher865]

If you did wait too long to activate and they closed the account or whatever, you could probably call them up at that point and reopen it without too much struggle.  I don't know for sure, though.  I think AMEX is the only source you can reliably find any of these answers from.