Amex Hilton HHonors

[JoeRo]

If they would SP me sometime this month they would see that my score has improved dramatically. It's kind of BS that they base their decision off a SP that's two months old.

Also, one of the customer service reps had the audacity to tell me that I need to stop applying once a month because all of the applications are putting hard pulls on my report and hurting my score. He had no idea about Amex's policy of soft pulls for declines with current members.

[JoeRo]

So I got my denial letter in the mail today. Once again the cited a low fico score and too short of a history being an Amex customer as the denial reasons. There was one piece of information that made me happy though. They listed my Fico score as 704, which really isn't bad. And that's still with high utilization on my Discover.

What kind of score is it going to take to get the HHonors?

[CreditScholar]

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@JoeRo wrote:
So I got my denial letter in the mail today. Once again the cited a low fico score and too short of a history being an Amex customer as the denial reasons. There was one piece of information that made me happy though. They listed my Fico score as 704, which really isn't bad. And that's still with high utilization on my Discover.

What kind of score is it going to take to get the HHonors?

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700 should be enough, but I suspect other factors besides your score are working against you. Amex relies heavily on its own internal scoring model for exsiting cardmembers, and your short time with them probably is impacting that score as well. Build up some history with them, re-apply, make sure your util is ok when you do and you'll be fine.

[myjourney]

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@JoeRo wrote:
So I got my denial letter in the mail today. Once again the cited a low fico score and too short of a history being an Amex customer as the denial reasons. There was one piece of information that made me happy though. They listed my Fico score as 704, which really isn't bad. And that's still with high utilization on my Discover.

What kind of score is it going to take to get the HHonors?

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The 704 would do if you take the advice they gave about increasing your history....garden time 

[JoeRo]

I'm in the unique position that obtaining another Amex card would increase my AAoA.  My oldest account is a year, and this account would backdate a year.  That's the big reason I was hoping to get it soon.

In effect, I believe that this card would raise my Fico substantially.

[enharu]

The problem you are not realizing that its a bad idea to keep applying once every 30 days just because its a SP. regardless of the outcome of your application, you will look as being desperate for credit. If this keeps going on for a while your chances of getting FR is very high.

Just be patient. Wait until they do a new SP. or contact EO and just have them do a HP now and be done with it. Don't apply whenever you can just because its a SP. They are evaluating you based on a lot other factors as well, including your behavior and past actions with them.

[gsmothermon]

Hey JoeRo, any new updates on this? I got denied awhile back and have since gotten a huge FICO increase (from 585 to 702). I see you had 704 and got denied. My average AAoA is 2.5 years, but have never had an Amex before. Thoughts/suggestions?

[JoeRo]

Sorry for the late reply. I ended up waiting two months, and got approved for the hilton card. Just this weekend I converted that card into a BCE. Amex is not as strict as you would think. It's worth the risk.

[myjourney]

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@JoeRo wrote:
Sorry for the late reply. I ended up waiting two months, and got approved for the hilton card. Just this weekend I converted that card into a BCE. Amex is not as strict as you would think. It's worth the risk.

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Congrats the wait was worth it