@JTodd343 wrote:Hi all,
First time ever posting (so please someone feel free to correct me if this is the wrong way/place to do so).
My current situation is one that seems uncommon/rarely discussed elsewhere so I'll do my best to explain it briefly and I'd love to know if anyone else has had similar encounters or additional insights.
I'm a relatively new AMEX member (first card issued in Jan '24) and have a total of three cards: Plat (Jan '24); Gold (Feb '24); and BCP (Mar '24).
I applied (and was approved for) the BCP based off of a personalized welcome bonus offer that popped-up one day while logged into my amex account. The details of the welcome offer aren't really relevant (standard/generic offer for that card) but I mention the offer because, once I completed my application, I was hit with the pop-up jail window informing me that I was ineligible for any sort of welcome offer.
I went through with the application nonetheless and called customer service shortly after to see if I could sweet talk my way back into the welcome offer (especially since I had applied for the card with an explicit/personalized offer from my own account). Ultimately, they weren't able to do any (which is fine/not that big of a deal).
Now (I think) the interesting part:
When the card arrived, I didn't have any real sense of urgency to get it out, activated, and used since there was no time/spend-based requirement to meet (and since the SL assigned was only $1000). It's been almost two months since the card arrived (second statement will close May 7th) and the BCP is still not reporting to EXP, TU, or EQF...
The only other (personal) DPs/frame of reference I have for this situation are the post-activation reporting timeframe for my Plat and Gold cards, which began reporting to all three bureaus within two weeks of activation.
Does anything about this standout to anyone? Is there some possible strategy to be gamed here (if the theory of not reporting until activated is proved) by allowing the 'new' account to age several months before it's first reported? How long could this situation be gamed until AMEX (more than likely) just cancels the card/account altogether?
For reference/additional background details: I use my Gold Card everyday (as does my authorized user) and Plat card for larger, reoccurring monthly purchases. AMEX has not communicated to me any instructions/requirements for me to confirm or activate the BCP card. The only thing that MIGHT be related to an attempted communication for that purpose is a small chat window that appears in the bottom right hand corner of my screen when logged into my AMEX account. The message (in a chat-bubble .png pop-up, not an actual customer service chat window) reads "We need to chat with you. It's an important matter with your account." (can't be balance-related for either of my other two cards because those balances are at, or close to $0). I've even spoken to AMEX-Plat customer service over the phone multiple times (about unrelated account questions) since I started seeing this pop-up message and those AMEX reps made no mention of it whatsoever.
Thoughts? (and thank you for tolerating what I think might be a long-ish post for a first-timer lol)
1. Welcome to the forum.
2. Your 'gaming' ideas are not going to help you. Just activate the card already.
3. You should always respond to a message that says "We need to chat with you. It's an important matter with your account".
4. Anyone who plays 'games' with Amex loses.
I agree there's nothing to be gained by not activating the card. I'm guessing the popup message is in regard to that, I would check into it asap.
@JTodd343 Amex reporting can be slow at times. But I mean you can either activate the card and start using or just call them to close it.
amex has taken two statements to report for me on both BCE and Gold.
Yes, you get the added benefit that when it does report, you'll almost be at 3 months which gets rid of some of that new account penalty in FICO
I'd be more than happy to send you a card that you don't use and you can pay me $95/year. ;-p
Seriously, I think you are over-thinking it. I assume you want the card if you applied for it. I think you should activate it and enjoy it.
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As others have said, you haven't found a way to game reporting. When reporting starts is up to Amex, and it's independent of whether or not you activate the card.
The only thing unusual is that your other Amex cards didn't take 2 statement cycles before reporting. It does happen, but usually the current scenario you are in is what happens. Activation, or the lack thereof, isn't the cause of the delay as that is normal for American Express.
