Hi fellow ozbargainer,
Does anyone know if say I contact Amex to change Amex Essential to Platinum Edge without applying for a new card, will this affect my credit score?
Thanks in advanced
Changing Credit Card with Same Provider Affect Credit Score?
Ljimmywise on 01/02/2017 - 11:06
Comments
Will be remain the same…
Last time I called the up asking the same question (I wanted to switch to Explorer), they advised me to apply for a new AmEx Explorer card. They said once it's approved, they can do a credit adjustment between the cards and then close the essentials card. This was about 3-4 months ago when the explorer first came into existence and I'm not sure if the procedure has changed by now.
Applying for a new card would mean that you would have an access entry in your credit file, which also means your score would be affected.
@FirstWizard Why did they advised you to apply a new card?
I believe they do that because the income requirement is different for different cards, so they want to assess anew.
thanks for the info…
Will try to call them up to see what they say… I had Velocity Platinum before, so shouldn't be a problem getting the Platinum Edge… Really try to avoid having another enquiries added to my file..
@jimmywise: If the customer support person you speak with just give you the standard reply (i.e. you have to close and reapply again), ask to speak with someone in the New Cards section. You might be able to get further with them. Good luck. Let us know how you go.
Sure, will update once I'm able to call them…
Apparently not possible for Essential to Platinum Edge, but it sounded like its possible for may be "downgrade" of credit card type might be possible…
@jimmywise: Thanks for your feedback.
You probably saw these recent posts, but just in case you didn't:
Maybe your score is good, and you need not be concerned with another application.
Thanks for the info…
Good enough for one application (I hope) but I'm thinking of applying two hence just want to change the card for Amex…
I had Amex Platinum Edge and I wanted to downgrade to Amex Essential. I called up Amex and they said they can downgrade my card to Velocity or Qantas ones without me having to re-apply but not to the Essential. So, I had to cancel my Platinum Edge and re-apply for Essential from scratch. Not sure if it would have affected my credit score though. I retained the same credit limit.
This is interesting … wonder what is the logic, allowing downgrade to Velocity/Qantas, but not Essential. It is not as if the Velocity or Qantas ones share the same reward program as the Amex Platinum Edge either. Did they give a reason for why this is?
They said Essential didn't show up in auto-generated list of possible other cards I can transit to in my account. They can't just exchange the cards, keeping the account same if the option didn't show up on the list. So, basically I was supposed to make shift manually rather than their system doing it automatically for me upon my request.
depends if your credit limit has increased/decreased