I'm sorry, I missed this post! I don't believe that this card is offered anymore. I seem to remember that the card was discontinued in November (?) I think. Hope this helps you.
Thanks Erica! I still have a form that was sent to me since I too was denied a "Blue" for students...its for the Optima, I am just wondering if they will still accept it.
You may want to ask Jason over on the discussion board on CardWeb www.cardweb.com He's an AMEX rep and IIRC they stopped issuing the secured cards, closed all the open accounts and issued refunds for the deposits earlier this year. There is talk of a new AMEX card for people with damaged credit coming out later this year.
My AMEX secured card is still open, and I use it all the time, whoever said they refunded all accounts, and closed them did not know what they were talking about I guess? Am I the only one with secured optima?
I appreciate your response jonesing...I was hoping that I would have another opportunity to have Amex!
Both my daughter and my neighbor still have the Optima secured cards from Amex. They both still use them, and there has been no indication that their accounts would be closed or their deposits refunded. Still, Amex does not honor its promise to unsecure the cards, so they are not worth having unless you just want to try and impress someone by flashing an Amex card.
Doris,AMEX never promised me that they would unsecure mine.As, far as, "it's not worth having",I have to differ with you on that because tho they don't report,Amex has an internal credit beaurau dept. and they have sent me certified letters when needed of my credit history with them and also I have given the department phone number to potentual lenders to verify,This has given me tremendous leverage in being being consider and approved by lenders. I would recommend you to tell daugther and neighbor to work this to their advantage.It doesn't report to CB's, but it does give the impression to lenders with verification from amex, of course, to consider over-riding the computer generated denials. This was one of the better moves I have made in re-establishing my credit.
When the story of Am/Ex closing all Secured Optima accounts and sending back deposits broke, I questioned it as well. I called customer service and spoke to 2 different reps and a supervisor. They all stated that the program was discontinued but people w/ existing accounts would not be affected. I have the secured Optima card (why I don't know) and have had no problems what so ever.
Thanks! Everything has been cool. Been very busy with work and I also have been traveling alot lately. Haven't had a chance to post or read much either. I also have been giving my credit reports a break since I departed from Junum after 3 rounds. What I'm also noticing is that I guess? Junum sent out some disputes that either got lost w/ TU or in the mail or something and I've gotten 2 updates that weren't favorable. I think I got 1 deletion of an account that I currently have (Macy's)!!!!! The information on the account was wrong and I guess they were supposed to dispute a 30 day late and instead disputed as *not mine* and Macy's didn't respond in time and they deleted the whole entry! Oh well....I'm sure Macy's will put it back on there since I use the card a lot. Other than that, I'm really trying to focus on 1 report right now and that's Equifax. More creditors in my area use them more so than the others so I'm trying to clean up Equifax completely. I estimate that I'll be done w/ that report by August.
