Credit Tips: Bank of America Opened a American Express Credit Card without Permission

Posted On: March 11, 2007

Author: AJ
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 6:58 am
Post subject: Bank Of America Opened An Amex Card Without My Permission

Bank Of America wants to “fix” my portfolio so I could have an amex card from them, However, they wanted to open the account via taking credit away from existing card limits ( World & Platinum plus) instead of doing a hard pull. They told me the rate would be a 9.9 fixed. 12 months BT 1.9 fixed. The limit would be part of the 41k I am not using. I told them NO NOT at this time. The next day, $3000 was missing from my world card and I called in to inquire about it and was told that limit was reduced by 3000 to open the Amex card . When I called to close this account, have I was told it would not appear on my report. I pulled a report on 3/12 and there it was. A hard pull. You better believe I was on the phone getting this taken care of. HOW DARE THEM

Last edited by AJ on Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:40 am; edited 1 time in total

Author: guessindigo
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:31 pm
Post subject:

It’s called reallocation, meaning you have the max amout of credit with them, so if you take a new card, they reallocate some of your existing 41K to the new card with the nice intro rates.

Personally, I would not do such a thing. I would keep one card with a high limit.

Author: Verne
Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:59 pm
Post subject:

guessindigo wrote:
It’s called reallocation, meaning you have the max amout of credit with them, so if you take a new card, they reallocate some of your existing 41K to the new card with the nice intro rates.

Personally, I would not do such a thing. I would keep one card with a high limit.

Indigo, thanks for explaining credit “reallocation”. I’ve never done it and really didn’t understand it. Makes sense to keep one card with a high limit from a scoring standpoint.

I’m a “senior member” and you’re more a credit expert than me. Don’t sell yourself short. I’ve just been hanging around longer. Besides, I’d rather be known as an expert debtor with related skills in overspending, misreading fine print, and having anxiety attacks when I call customer service - actually whenever I get near a phone.

Author: hdporter
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:22 am
Post subject:

My take on this is mixed. The thing I really want to know is, do you really need the card? If so, go for it and determine what is warranted as a tradeoff to get it.

I’ve been asking myself, where is Blue Oyster Cult with a follow-up “Don’t Fear the Hard Pull”. If you’re looking at half a dozen pulls in the last year from the CRA they’d draw from, I can understand the concern. If just one or two, I wouldn’t sweat it.

Likewise, if you’re holding down a 760 credit score, the hit from increased utilization on the existing accounts due to lower limits isn’t nearly the concern than if you’re at 680. Beside, BA has aggressively increased my limits over the last 3 years … first 1 card a $1K, then 2 with total $4K; most recently 5 with $49K. Consolidation of a couple accounts that are lightly used and for which benefit has diminished can restore a ligh limit for reporting purposes.

If you’re after the low rate bt, always factor the fee — which calls to evaluating the fact that it’s up front rather than levied over the life of the balance and needs to be evaluated against the average account balance (not the initial amount transferred). 1.9% can start looking like 8%+ in some cases.

I don’t see it as a bad move necessary, at all. It just calls for weighing the advantages against the disadvantages.

Author: AJ
Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 6:21 am
Post subject:

Harry, you are one of the VERY few people here that offers good advice that makes sense. Thanks.