Amex Zync Card Spending Limit.

[michaels88369]

I was approved for the new Zync cards a few days ago and I believe my initial spending limit is 500. My question is does Amex report that to the credit Bureaus or just the highest amount that you spent on the card? Also do they report to all 3 as a credit card or charge account? Thanks for your answers. -Michael

[haulingthescoreup]

Here you go. (Don't think that I can stand to type it again, lol):

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Interesting-issue-with-my-Zync-card/m-p/694521/highligh...

Part of it deals with a different question, but it should answer your questions about how an AmEx card is treated. They will report your highest-ever statement balance, as opposed to the balance that you ever had at any point in the cycle, but it really doesn't matter. Basically, it's ignored for util, except for the mostly-obsolete TU 98 score.

[michaels88369]

So if I get what your saying is correct this card is kinda pointless on helping me lower my overall utilization on my cards? Is this card actually good for something on helping my credit reports? Maybe I should have gotten a normal revolving card.

[haulingthescoreup]

It's a positive in that it's an open tradeline, and it will generate month after month of additional clean history for your reports. (If you treat it right, of course, lol.) It just won't factor into utilization. So it's a positive, but not as positive as a revolving card would be.

But you can't change from a charge card to a revolver (you have to do a new app), so I'd stick with it for now. It's generally easier to get a charge card than a revolver from AmEx, because they can control their exposure more. You might not get approved for a revolver at this point. Six months from now (next January or February), you can think about adding a revolver that does report. By then, they'll know you and know how responsible you are, and your chances will be better. Then, if you like, you can close the Green Zync right before its anniversary date and save the annual fee for next year.

edit to correct card name (too many AmEx threads going on right now!)

[michaels88369]

Sounds like a plan. Thank You for you help

[Anonymous]

Just to throw in my experience. I've had good luck with this card getting limit's raised. Started off getting the card with a mid-low 600s score and very little history/accounts ($1k visa from CU and an old collection paid for less than full). I had to buy around 5k in airfare over the course of 2 months and charging it to this card, in 1-2k chunks, then paying online has given me a 5.5k line with amex (just checking with their online tools).

Just got a $500 revolving student card from discover, eligible for a CLI in 6 months, but I doubt they will be as generous. I like this card for it's ability to almost instantly grow with my responsible purchases, given my sparse, even bad, history. Hoping that in 6 months to a year this good history with amex will allow me to convert to a blue cash/etc.

[michaels88369]

The only bad thing with this card and a 5.5K spending limit is that it doesn't help your utl and doesn't report limits, plus if you did spend that high you have to pay in full. Do you happen to know if you can use the reward points on airfare? Is there a list of the things points can buy??

[Anonymous]

Yup. But I'm hoping that Amex will consider the fact that I've been able to utilize that line responsibly as a factor in adding a revolving line.

The point rewards of this card are rather bad too: the gift cards are 20,000 points = 100$, or 0.5% return given a 1:1 dollar/point ratio. I've read on the zynctank forums that it's possible to accrue points in membership rewards express, which blue/zync are a part of. MRE does not allow you to transfer to FF points/etc and is kind of a Points Lite. However, you can get points in MRE and then if you get a Green/etc card later those points can be used as normal membership rewards points.

[Ron1]

I haven't checked mine since I got the card.  I never checked spending ability on my Zync Card.

Ron.

[Devastator]

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@michaels88369 wrote:

So if I get what your saying is correct this card is kinda pointless on helping me lower my overall utilization on my cards? Is this card actually good for something on helping my credit reports? Maybe I should have gotten a normal revolving card.

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1. Diversifies the TYPE of credit you have.

2. A guess is that it builds credibility with AMEX.  The way I'm starting to see the Zync, is that it's a subprime card for Amex (I say it's subprime as i haven't seen or heard anyone getting rejected and they're accepting low 600s apparently), kind of a proving ground, if you can handle it for 6 months, then you can upgrade.

Hey readers, those of you with Zyncs, please update when you graduate to a revolving Amex card, and let us know how many months with the Zync you had at the time.