They've tightened up now that their default rate is in the 6% area, which is high for them. They made the mistake of focusing on FICO too much when they grew their card base the last five years, which has really burned them. There were a lot of people with great FICOs but spending beyond their means and now they are defaulting. My guess is AMEX is looking at a lot more than just FICO now but you will probably need at least a 680 to even be considered.
In terms of how they are, Amex has better customer service than Visa or MC. Amex is a charge card which means you have to pay it off in full each month. This leads to a better relationship with them because it is a straight forward system - there isn't this game of teaser rates and late fees like there is with MC, Visa and other revolving cards. I think we all resent the games Visa and MC play. There isn't any of that at AMEX which I appreciate. Off course, this means you have to pay off your card at the end of the month, which if you are new to charge cards, is probably a good habit to get into anyway. The downside of AMEX is they send you an endless supply of junk mail and after being a good customer for a while, they are always trying to upgrade you to more expensive cards that you don't need, such as the gold card or platinum card....."be part of an exclusive group of members who..blah blah blah." These cards are overpriced and provide no meaningful benefit.
The other thing to keep in mind that I just learned is that they don't report a credit limit to FICO so FICO takes the month with the highest balance and uses that as your limit. This can lead to your utilization rate being exaggerated if you are mindful of when you pay your card off, etc.
