Amex preapproval

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone, I worked really hard to clean up my credit and i think the hard work is finally paying off. 

Last week i received an invite to apply for Amex Green card and I wanted to know if I should apply or not? My EQ and TU are squeeky clean with a revolving BoA card with $2500 (it started out as a partially secured card in Apr '08) and secured WF card with a $1000 CL (hoping to graduate Sept/Oct. My utilization is under 10%

My only problem is that I still have a collection account which i was able to have it dropped on other CR but not EX

Should I apply for the Amex green? I'm really tempted

[smallfry]

How old is the collection? Two things. You might try to freeze Experian then apply. They have a habit of matching your lowest credit limit.

[Anonymous]

The collection account is 6 years old, due to fall off end of next year

[Anonymous]

AMEX are bastards. I applied for the BlueSky cc and instant denial. My credit history is 1 1/2 year old, no balances on my 2 credit cards (Citi Plat Select 9700 limit and DIscover Miles 1000 Limit) and a 1 year old student loan with a 1300 balance) no lates ever and no baddies with a 730 FICO. They pissed me off. Also, I would only apply for the green card if you plan on keeping it a while, something to consider with the annual fee they charge. Im just not a fan of the charge cards in general though.

[Anonymous]

The Green charge card should be easier to get than the Blue cards.

If you do apply good luck and let us know how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Thank you guys for all the feedback. With my 2 year history, would you recommend for me to apply or should I hold off. So far i have 3 inquiries on my EX, I'll rather not take another hit if my chances are slim

[haulingthescoreup]

If you don't need some type of credit --think car loan, think paying an ER bill --I say never apply for credit when you have a big baddie on your reports that is due to fall off relatively soon.

Even if you're approved (no personal info on the odds of that), I firmly believe that you won't get as good a deal in terms of CL or APR, and I also believe that you'll get an asterix on your account that will still be there long after the baddie is gone.

Believe me, I understand wanting to celebrate all your good work. But AmEx isn't going anywhere. They'll still be there when the collection is gone.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the feedback. I think I'll just hold off until the stupid Cavalry collection drops off from my EX. Its so annoying cuz its only on EX and not the other two aarghhhh

[Anonymous]

With Amex if you've already gotten a pre-approval letter in the mail then you'll get the card, especially with the scores you have listed.

I have a collection that is dropping off in December and still got a Gold card offer in the mail in April which I got instant approval on.

[Anonymous]

So silly me decided to go ahead and put the application instead of just following my instincts so I got Denied

Here's there response

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Your American Express Acquisition Risk Score is too high  (See below)

Your application was processed using our American Express Proprietary Acquisition Risk Scoring System which assigns a numerical value to the various items of information we consider in evaluating an application.  Your application's total score exceeded our threshold for approval at this time.  Listed below are the reasons that you did not score well compared with other applicants.  (For reasons based on information in a credit report, the name of the consumer reporting agency is identified.)

Your consumer credit bureau score from Experian is too low  (See below)

Too few established accounts or insufficient account information (Experian)

Length of time accounts have been established (Experian)

Delinquency reported on accounts (Experian)

Your consumer credit bureau score mentioned above was determined using a scoring system that evaluated the information in your file at the consumer reporting agency named above.  The following are the primary factors in your credit report that affected your credit bureau score:

Derogatory public record or collection filed.

Too few accounts currently paid as agreed.

Lack of recent installment loan information.

Length of time accounts have been established.