Hey guys. This seems like a great forum and everyone seems friendly so I have a few questions that I'm hoping you might have some advice for...
Ok so I had an AMEX card when I was in college that was never paid off because I ended up getting pretty sick, kidney situation. That was about 8 years ago. I'm doing great now and am basically debt free. My credit report only has a couple of major baddies, a 5 year old collection that CPA refuses to remove for comcast, that was PIF back then to comcast (not those bloody leeches) and a 90 day late from merrick bank 3 years ago that was reported incorrectly, but even if I supply proof I gather they really won't budge. They have already "validated" when it was disputed. That was the result of a debt consolidator I hired who apparently made late payments (though I have records of paying them).
At any rate my AMEX was wayyy past statute and no longer on my credit reports but I decided to PIF earlier this week out of principle and the enticement of possibly re-adding a 9 yr old credit line. So it cleared their hoops yesterday and they're going to send me some sort of optima application. It sounds like a toy card to me and not really worth my time though. I am currently using a citi dividens ps ($8500), southwest rr premier ($2000), and airtran barclay's ($3500) as my primary cards and have basically sock drawered the two crap 1's and Orchard, though I use them from time to time just to keep some activity. Everything is PIF... the 3 primary cards are only a few months old though.
My FAKOS are between the high 600-low 700's. Since there's a lot people here of experience with these matters ...what would you recommend I do with the AMEX? The oasis is basically a "Free" approval, but it has an annual fee (that's really pointless) and is kind of useless to me just to have a low CL high interest card who's only purpose is to lengthen my CR and give me the sense I'm walking with my tail between my legs back to a company that hounded me to no end with collections calls when I could barely function (it also wouldn't be my oldest card, I have an 18 yr old AU reporting). I did like amex customer service in the past (2002) but I also have heard that it's gone downhill these days. I travel a lot also so I figure one of their travel related products or a blue cash would be most useful to me. What do you guys know of how they tend to approve things and the likelyhood that I would be approved for something better than that oasis thing. Also if anyone has any advice about credit protection association (HAH) or Merrick please do tell 
If you do a search, there are many threads on this topic. Several people have said that they declined the Oasis after clearing up a debt, just waited about three months, then applied for one of their standard credit products. So if the idea of Oasis bothers you (I don't blame you) -- I would wait to let the dust settle for a bit, then apply for what you want. You shouldn't have any problems...
Starting Score January 1, 2010: 640Thanks for the reply, very true, well I haven't applied for anything of course, I heard a lot of people get approved for zync or delta with similar scores to mine (thought not a real FICO so I can't say exactly), so I was just seeing what people though. A lot of posts around the web have suggested not accepting oasis and trying for something else if their scores were relatively decent. My payment history is perfect for the last 3 years and other than a couple blotches perfect before that also. Has anyone chosen not to accept the oasis card and gone that other route? As I said the amex is gone as well, paid in full. If I were to try for something better should I wait a while or try for something relatively easy to get? I know the score is only one factor with them, there is some sort of internal risk algorithm as well. I'm fully able to pay but would rather stay under the radar as much as possible as well, so no elaborate spending planned on that card and regular payment. I may use it for travel though if I apply for and get something other than the oasis optima. No idea what my chances may be for approval though. I'm in no rush though, I could either apply for something and if I don't get it accept the optima, or do nothing and wait a few months. I'm in no rush.
Thanks shooting star, just saw that after I typed this reply I have searched those posts, they seem to be a bit dated though, many of them. And things change as we all know
i would close the orchard card if i were you and the cap one if it has an af because the other cards you have now are much better than orchard and its a waste of money to pay the af as long as your utilization is very low then it wont affect you
Thank you! I've worked very hard at it and now have a pristine CR -- just letting things age a bit. The two most significant things that made my score jump are paying my cc's down (I now allow only one to report just a few dollars each month -- PIF always), and getting that last baddie off. My scores skyrocketed after that. Also, another thing I was doing a couple of years ago and didn't realize was hurting me (before I found myfico, of course!), was that I thought paying cash for everything was better and tried never to use credit -- didn't realize how important USING credit positively was until I educated myself!
But thank you! It was certainly with the help of all the advice among these boards!
For some reason my orchard has no AF, or it does they've never charged me, guess i got lucky, did hear something that lenders were a bit leery of extending credit to people them on their reports for obvious reasons. The crap 1 cards do have annual fees and I've been thinking of doing just that. Their sub-prime cards are junk. They've been trying to get me to apply for a huge hassle rewards until called and asked them to stop mailing me offers 3x a week. LOL. Have another month to decide before it comes up again though. Util right now is at 2%, paying that off again in a week. Generally I use 5-10% total (cards combined) in a month and pay off most of it before the statement generates, so my credit reports show very low util. Chase does report the highest balance. Do companies like AMEX have a preference for fewer card accounts? (I hear annual reviews are a pain, never had one when I had their green card originally)... Not that I'm going to bend over for them, but I've been choosing cards that are good deals, don't really need that many (cap 1 is most likely getting the axe 
@Anonymous wrote:Hey guys. This seems like a great forum and everyone seems friendly so I have a few questions that I'm hoping you might have some advice for...
Ok so I had an AMEX card when I was in college that was never paid off because I ended up getting pretty sick, kidney situation. That was about 8 years ago. I'm doing great now and am basically debt free. My credit report only has a couple of major baddies, a 5 year old collection that CPA refuses to remove for comcast, that was PIF back then to comcast (not those bloody leeches) and a 90 day late from merrick bank 3 years ago that was reported incorrectly, but even if I supply proof I gather they really won't budge. They have already "validated" when it was disputed. That was the result of a debt consolidator I hired who apparently made late payments (though I have records of paying them).
At any rate my AMEX was wayyy past statute and no longer on my credit reports but I decided to PIF earlier this week out of principle and the enticement of possibly re-adding a 9 yr old credit line. So it cleared their hoops yesterday and they're going to send me some sort of optima application. It sounds like a toy card to me and not really worth my time though. I am currently using a citi dividens ps ($8500), southwest rr premier ($2000), and airtran barclay's ($3500) as my primary cards and have basically sock drawered the two crap 1's and Orchard, though I use them from time to time just to keep some activity. Everything is PIF... the 3 primary cards are only a few months old though.
My FAKOS are between the high 600-low 700's. Since there's a lot people here of experience with these matters ...what would you recommend I do with the AMEX? The oasis is basically a "Free" approval, but it has an annual fee (that's really pointless) and is kind of useless to me just to have a low CL high interest card who's only purpose is to lengthen my CR and give me the sense I'm walking with my tail between my legs back to a company that hounded me to no end with collections calls when I could barely function (it also wouldn't be my oldest card, I have an 18 yr old AU reporting). I did like amex customer service in the past (2002) but I also have heard that it's gone downhill these days. I travel a lot also so I figure one of their travel related products or a blue cash would be most useful to me. What do you guys know of how they tend to approve things and the likelyhood that I would be approved for something better than that oasis thing. Also if anyone has any advice about credit protection association (HAH) or Merrick please do tell
This is TOTALLY worth your time to get back in with Amex, especially with some baddies still on your reports. Take what they give you, use it wisely and in a year or so you will hopefully qualify for one of their regular cards. Good luck and congrats on getting things squared away and on track!