How does banking with AMEX will help AMEX ccs?

[Anonymous]

No fees at all from what I can tell.  I do a direct transfer from my Wells Fargo account.  I never taken money out but it would be a direct transfer also.  By the way, I really like the ING Direct savings account too.  

[Anonymous]

Ok, how about  ... does it cost  any inq to open the saving acct with them?

[jnydc]

I didn't notice any. Inq.'s are immediate, so I don't think so!

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ok, how about  ... does it cost  any inq to open the saving acct with them?

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[Anonymous]

No inquires on my account either.  One thing I did notice is that it takes awhile from when they take out money from my Wells Fargo account to post to my American Express account.  It is not a big thing for me but just FYI.  

[TangMeister]

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@Anonymous wrote:

No inquires on my account either.  One thing I did notice is that it takes awhile from when they take out money from my Wells Fargo account to post to my American Express account.  It is not a big thing for me but just FYI.  

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Yep, no hard inq for this.  Amex does a soft inq on EX when you open a savings acct with them.  I would suspect they might check Chex as well, but haven't confirmed it.

[smallfry]

I don't know for sure if it helps to have a savings account so far as them offering or approving a credit or charge card. I have had a checking account with Commerce/TD for well over 10 years and am only now getting offers to extend credit. I think AMEX has relaxed their criteria a bit the past year. After all they approved me. 

[haulingthescoreup]

I have no banking/ savings products with American Express, and they took me back when my scores were in the 710's-720's, and my derogs were a lot newer.

If they have some sort of wonderful savings rate going on, that's one thing. But IMO, opening a savings account just to try to grease a CC app seems a waste of time, if your Experian report is already good enough.

[wollepopolle]

Definitely no use greasing your relationship with a bank through a savings account.At least not the big banks!

For the longest time, I had a checking account with PNC that was in good standing. We are talking years here of regular direct deposits etc. Now, when I tried to apply for their credit card, they would reject me as someone with no credit record as I had just arrived in the US a couple years prior and had not applied for any credit since. I was naive that they would "see" my good history with them when I applied.Little did I know that they wouldn't! It was a catch-22. Eventually, I talked to a nice PNC bank teller, and she called their credit card dep. (which was serviced by Elan at the time) and told them that I was a good customer whereupon they approved a card with a $1000 limit, thus repealing their previous denial. Here I learned, though, that the traditional banking operations are separate from the CC department. If it hadn't been for this nice intervention, PNC would have lost a good customer rather quickly. I am still not a big fan of them but I have kept my checking account out of convenience.

Anyway, I take the decent APR of 1.3% that Amex Savings currently offers. Others offer less. Even Discover has reduced its APR to 1.25%.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone!    Yes, the 1.3% APY is better than any other bank's APY.   It won't be a large amount to start with, but still it is better than to keep my money in the my current saving acct at Chase Plus Saving, NFCU and Addison Saving accts.  Because those accts are no monthly fee with no interest earnings.

Thanks again