I don't see anything as to why they denied you. Hell, I got denied 3x before I finally got in. I applied the same year to.
As others have said, there is nothing requiring them to extend you credit. No one has been able to figure out Amex's rhyme/reason for approving or denying people. It's something you just have to live with.
Everytime I applied for Amex prior to my approval, they triple pulled me.
On the last pull, which was the approval, they only pulled Experian. Weird isn't it?
Good luck and keep your head up.
As others have said, there is nothing requiring them to extend you credit. No one has been able to figure out Amex's rhyme/reason for approving or denying people. It's something you just have to live with.
Everytime I applied for Amex prior to my approval, they triple pulled me.
On the last pull, which was the approval, they only pulled Experian. Weird isn't it?
Good luck and keep your head up.
The reasons for denial can be confusing at times. It's just that they have to list 4 things, and not in any particular order. For instance, people with 20 years of history can have "length of revolving history" as a reason. But the truth is that were borderline for some internal factor and the system just spit out something.
My guess is that your usage (or non-usage) of your current Amex charge card has had a negative influence.
[and just in case the Amex gestapo has this thread bugged... I love my green card, guys! i do! i do! American Express #1!! 
]
@changingmantra2 wrote:I do not know what the heck they pull - but last year - a rep insisted that I had two unpaid judgments on my CR - when I knew for certain that was NOT the case - The crazy thing was that Chase said the same thing. I pulled my report - already knowing that I would find what they were saying to be untrue. The final outcome - was them telling me to get in touch with EX. Of course - I was like - to "To say WHAT? I do NOT have two unpaid judgments - I have ONE - but that second one was paid before it even showed up in my credit file years ago." All I know is that - In July - I was told this and denied for both cards. In Dec. I was approved for a Freedom - then last month approved for a BCE. The only thing that changed on my reports in that time - was the number of credit cards I had. So, I do not know what these people were looking at, but I assume that either they were now looking at the correct report - and/or they no longer cared about my supposed 2 unpaid judgments. You can call them - but do not get your hopes up. Like I said, all was told was to contact EX, which made no sense snce my EX reported correctly on my end.
Lenders can pull secondary data aggregation reports: if you had a second judgement, and it was paid, it may still be on record with the courts even if it didn't make it to the bureau. As a result, it might've gotten into the data stream somewhere.
The other thing to note is sometimes there needs to be some period of time between the derogs in question and the application.
ETA: in general, not every credit score is created equally: a 750 is obtainable in 2 years from a nofile, likely easily so on a FICO '08 model. This is very, very different in terms of quality than someone who has a 750 with 8+ years of a clean sheet. Beyond that, a lot of factors go into an underwriting decision which we'll never find out about as consumers: they're mandated to toss some reasons together by regulation based on what's in the credit report and to furnish a score if it was used in a denial... that's it though, and typically they'll never go beyond the minimum standard. It costs more, and it opens them up for possible lawsuits which might go sideways. What they provided is stable ground legally, and lenders won't walk off that unless forced to in my estimation.
@romeo105 wrote:I understand is their criteria but their inof is wrong I have zero negatives.... AAoA is below average at 4 yrs 1 month and my oldest account is 9 years old....... My credit history is diversed I have credit cards, student loans, past installment loans etc........ My current lines are over 5k........ I'm gonna wait it out, if they don't want my business then no biggie....... But my point is that their info is wrong n they shouldn't be telling me otherwise since they looking at same report (I'm assuming)
Do you mind sharing your income?
@romeo105 wrote:My student loans are at full util totaling 18500 and that's not changing no time soon
Amex has been known to count SL debt in their DTI -even if deferred.
@09Lexie wrote:
@romeo105 wrote:I understand is their criteria but their inof is wrong I have zero negatives.... AAoA is below average at 4 yrs 1 month and my oldest account is 9 years old....... My credit history is diversed I have credit cards, student loans, past installment loans etc........ My current lines are over 5k........ I'm gonna wait it out, if they don't want my business then no biggie....... But my point is that their info is wrong n they shouldn't be telling me otherwise since they looking at same report (I'm assuming)
Do you mind sharing your income?
@romeo105 wrote:My student loans are at full util totaling 18500 and that's not changing no time soon
Amex has been known to count SL debt in their DTI -even if deferred.
I can't imagine the amount of student loans having such a negative impact provided that all things are equal. I have serious student loan debt (multiple graduate degrees) and work in govt so I don't have a high income but I've had no problem getting a BCP with an initial CL of $11k.
@parakleet wrote:
@09Lexie wrote:
@romeo105 wrote:I understand is their criteria but their inof is wrong I have zero negatives.... AAoA is below average at 4 yrs 1 month and my oldest account is 9 years old....... My credit history is diversed I have credit cards, student loans, past installment loans etc........ My current lines are over 5k........ I'm gonna wait it out, if they don't want my business then no biggie....... But my point is that their info is wrong n they shouldn't be telling me otherwise since they looking at same report (I'm assuming)
Do you mind sharing your income?
@romeo105 wrote:My student loans are at full util totaling 18500 and that's not changing no time soon
Amex has been known to count SL debt in their DTI -even if deferred.
I can't imagine the amount of student loans having such a negative impact provided that all things are equal. I have serious student loan debt (multiple graduate degrees) and work in govt so I don't have a high income but I've had no problem getting a BCP with an initial CL of $11k.
Everything that's on the report, and a number of things which aren't on the report can be used.
- length of employment
- type of employment
- the employer themselves (quite likely in your case you have the job for as long as you want it)
- the student loan amount
- who the student loans were for
- what the student loans were for
- which school you went to
- possibly what degrees you have (if Google can find it, so can they...)
- your income
- tying in to the other factor of employer, how long you can reasonably expect to keep this income
This doesn't even get into most of the typical things that we typically associate with a credit report, and it's not an exhuastive list by any stretch of the imagination. Which individual credit card you are applying for factors as well: look at the BCE/BCP and the ED/EDP, those aren't designed for the same type of consumers: just because someone can get a Blue Cash Something, doesn't mean they're going to qualify for an Every Day... and possibly vice versa. For that matter we don't really have enough experience to know what the ED underwriting criteria are. Blue Cash: grocery/gas are limited transactions both in amount and number, ED: Amex really wants you using their card for the small transactions people wind up racking up as their default and go-to card for some non-default spending too.
Anyway a FICO score isn't the end-all and be-all of getting anything underwritten: it's only the minimum hurdle for getting a card, and with Amex, that hurdle is typically astonishingly low.
