Im excited to finally be part of this forum I have been on this pretty much all day at work learning tons. I thought I know alot about credit which I still think I do but the tricks and tips on here are very valuable. Going back 5-8 years when i was 21 I have always had very good credit 715+, 2 paid off cars with all positive history, numerous CC with no lates.. Around 2011 I had a very hard time and lost a business, which I ended up loosing my car that I had only for 5 months, I had no other choice but to survive. Scores dropped to 601-615..I have been rebuilding ever since and today I'm 28 years old my scores are EQ and EX 672 and Trans 697, I make around 80-100k yearly and have since bought another car 08/13 to help improve these scores (dont ask about the interest) lol. I could pay off the car its only a small 7k balance but im letting it build. Right now I have 1 car loan, 1 retail card which is paid and have 5 CC accounts.
Cap one Venture $3500 limit..$3300 Balance
Chase Freedom $2000 Limit...$1600 Balance
Discover IT $1800 Limit... $1400 Balance
Wells Fargo $1000 Limit ...$950 Balance
Orchard (now Capone) $1200 Limit...$450 Balance
HSBC retail services (worst customer service in history) $3000 Limit..0 balance
Now I did use these cards to get by for some time and now that my income has changed for the better I dug deep these last 3 months, ate crap and didn't spend a dime to pay these off. In 2 days I will bring my UTI from 64% to around %20. I will be paying off the venture, wells, and orchard. Within the next month I will have Discover and Freedom paid. My goal was to use the Venture card for daily expenses and pay off by statement from here out..BUT.....
I really have the AMEX Itch and I want to apply. I'm hoping once my UTI is down to 0-10% my scores will have jumped 30-50 points and I can apply. I would love to have the gold amex, Ive always wanted one and I feel it would be a great reward for this hard work. Do you guys see a possibility in Gold or even Blue Cash approval? 
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and help me out here.
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I agree with Mass.. if that is truly the landscape of your credit cards, it reads (to me) as almost maxed out. I would pay them off completely, wait a month or 2 and then apply. Use your cards (heck pick one..) and pif for those months. it will help to keep your util down and your score will go up up up. AMEX isn't really going anywhere and you can wait a few months,right?
So those negatives are from 3 years ago? Were they just lates or charge-offs? Are those scores FAKO or FICO? They seem unusually high considering your utilization. I'd wait until you util was under 10% to app.
Also, the Amex charge cards are the easiest approvals in the Amex family, followed by co-branded cards like the Delta, SPG, HHonors, etc.. People with scores in the low 600's have been approved for these.
