Quote:
Originally Posted by JL514
Credit Tips & Tricks:
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Amex backdate trick: I have heard that American Express reports any new account as opened on the date of your first open account date. So if you opened an Amex in 2002, and you open one today, it will show as 2 amex cards, both opened in 2002. I do not have experience with this as I only started this hobby in the past year, but if true, you could really boost your length credit history with this trick.
I haven't seen this commented on, but had a couple of recent experiences which add a caveat to this trick.
We've been on Amex since '06. Recently, I requested a replacement card on a Delta Amex card. To my surprise, they reported the line, and the charges, as a new line of credit. What's even stranger is that it was reported twice on our joint credit (once as mine, once as my wife's) so in essence we had 2 distinct credit lines (fixed limit) with the same charges, one opened in '06 and one opened in '13.
Sadly, this has happened before (with he non-limit card) and I didn't catch it before it went to the bureaus this time. To determine that you're not getting issued a "new" line, you should do the following: verify that it says "member since [original year of Amex credit, in our case '06]" and verify on the actual mailer the cards are pasted to that the mailer doesn't say "new line" in the printout.
We've sorted it out, I think, for now, but this is an example of why you should be monitoring your credit lines. We use a free service mentioned here, and couldn't be happier.