AMEX BCE To app or not to app

[Rainmaker825]

Hello all!  I've been lurking these forums for just over a year now.  Roughly three years ago I ended a bad era for my credit history following two years of unemployment as a civil engineer.  I now work a nice steady job in IT and am more stable than ever.  Long story short, two years ago I had a EX FICO of 483, with EQ and TU +/- 20.  I now have a EX FICO of 713 as of today, 694 EQ and 692 TU.  I have a ton of inquiries from August 2012 when I secured a new car loan which I have paid on time and early every month.  Within the last year I have 4 inquiries, 3 in the last 2 months (1 EQ 2 EX).  I have an annual salary of $60,000 and all my baddies are now safely over 3/4 years old, fall off dates in early 2016.  What are my chances at qualifying for the AMEX BCE and should I apply now or hit the garden for 6 months.  I am debating the best course of action as I know too many recent inquiries for new CC's is bad, but also would like to have them all age together as the AMEX would be the last CC I am interested in for at least the next two years.  (I plan to hit the garden hard and only seek CLI's every 6 months, long term plan of a house in 2+ years).  Thanks in advance for any advice I get!

[MissCredit9]

what does your AAoA and utilization look like?

[MissCredit9]

also what cards do you currently have and what are there limits?

[myjourney]

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@Rainmaker825 wrote:

Hello all!  I've been lurking these forums for just over a year now.  Roughly three years ago I ended a bad era for my credit history following two years of unemployment as a civil engineer.  I now work a nice steady job in IT and am more stable than ever.  Long story short, two years ago I had a EX FICO of 483, with EQ and TU +/- 20.  I now have a EX FICO of 713 as of today, 694 EQ and 692 TU.  I have a ton of inquiries from August 2012 when I secured a new car loan which I have paid on time and early every month.  Within the last year I have 4 inquiries, 3 in the last 2 months (1 EQ 2 EX).  I have an annual salary of $60,000 and all my baddies are now safely over 3/4 years old, fall off dates in early 2016.  What are my chances at qualifying for the AMEX BCE and should I apply now or hit the garden for 6 months.  I am debating the best course of action as I know too many recent inquiries for new CC's is bad, but also would like to have them all age together as the AMEX would be the last CC I am interested in for at least the next two years.  (I plan to hit the garden hard and only seek CLI's every 6 months, long term plan of a house in 2+ years).  Thanks in advance for any advice I get!

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Welcome to the fourm and we hope to see more of you around here

IMHO based on what you have listed and your recent apps I would hit the garden for 6 months for now.

The INQ's from 2012 while they are on your CR's have no Fico scoring after a year and in your case that was last month Yay

However they will still be seen by lenders until Aug. 14

After coming out of the garden you could do everything at once app BCE and CLI's every 6 months all together 

I would be interested in what cards you have to see if some are HP/SP's for CLI's and if some could be obtained more often.

[Rainmaker-825]

Thanks for the response.  I have an AAoA of 3 years 5 months, utilization of 2% as of today (I fluctuate between 1 and 10% intentionally).  My relevant CR info is below.

Capital One Quicksilver (was just upgraded from platinum, SP)  $43/1250 02/2012 Perfect history

Target Red Card 0$/700 10/2012 Perfect history

Amazon Store Card 0$/2100 11/2012 Perfect history

Discover IT 100$/1000 8/2013

Chase Freedom 0/900$ 9/2013

Citi ThankYou Preferred 0/3000$ 9/2013

VW Credit since 08/2012 305$ monthly

80k Student Loans, Deferred until 11/2014

60k Salary IT (CCNA, MS, EIT)  Salary will continue to rise as I earn more cert's in the coming years.

Thanks again for the help, I really do appreciate it and I intend to stick around on the forums from here on out (no more lurking).  Time to setup my sig.

[MissCredit9]

were the last 3 inquiries for new TL's? If so have those TL's showed up on your credit report?

[Rainmaker-825]

Yes the last 3 inquiries for the new TL's, Chase Freedom, Citi TY Preferred and Discover IT.  None of which are on the credit report as of yet, Discover IT pulled EX and so did Chase, Citi pulled EQ.

[MissCredit9]

I would wait until those trade lines report and I think your chances will increase because of the higher CL's. I was recently rejected for a revolver with a 715 experian score. Reason was number of inquiries (like you, I had 3 recent) and low credit limits (didnt wait for Citi to report) and low AAoA (mine is around 1 year, I dont think your AAoA should be problematic). Nothing can be done about your inquiries but you may stand a better chance than I did with a thicker file. After letting new TL's reporti would say you have a 50/50 chance. Wait three months after they report and I would bet you're as good as gold. All of this of course is just my opinion.

[myjourney]

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@Rainmaker-825 wrote:

Thanks for the response.  I have an AAoA of 3 years 5 months, utilization of 2% as of today (I fluctuate between 1 and 10% intentionally).  My relevant CR info is below.

Capital One Quicksilver (was just upgraded from platinum, SP)  $43/1250 02/2012 Perfect history

Target Red Card 0$/700 10/2012 Perfect history

Amazon Store Card 0$/2100 11/2012 Perfect history

Discover IT 100$/1000 8/2013

Chase Freedom 0/900$ 9/2013

Citi ThankYou Preferred 0/3000$ 9/2013

VW Credit since 08/2012 305$ monthly

80k Student Loans, Deferred until 11/2014

60k Salary IT (CCNA, MS, EIT)  Salary will continue to rise as I earn more cert's in the coming years.

Thanks again for the help, I really do appreciate it and I intend to stick around on the forums from here on out (no more lurking).  Time to setup my sig.

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Yes time to garden you have 5 CC accounts that are less than a year even tho 2 will be a year old next month and the month after target and amazon.

Going after a 6th account now is to soon IMO

6-8 months in the garden should help 

[Rainmaker-825]

To the Garden I go   Thanks all for the help, and thanks for the welcome!