Credit Card Tip: Amex Backdates New Cards To Your Oldest Cards Age

Update: Unfortunately American Express no longer backdates any of their cards. Read more about this here.

This is a handy little tip I just learn recently from the community on reddit’s /r/churning. Basically American Express will back date any credit card to the date of your oldest credit card.

This means that if I received my first American Express card in 2004 and then get approved for another card in 2014, the new card will show up on my credit report as being having an account age of 10 years+. The month being reported will be the month that you’re in when you apply for the new card. For example, you apply for a card in January 2014 and your first card was opened in June 2004. Your new card will show an opening date of January 2004.

This is an extremely important tip to remember and something that is worth taking into account when you’re trying to improve the average age of accounts (which impacts your FICO score). It’s also why it’s worth getting a no annual free card from American Express as one of your first credit cards.