My Brother Wants to App for AMEX BCE!

[eagles08]

My brother is still learning a lot about credit. He is 19 and is just starting to become obsessed like me! He wants an AMEX BCE but I'm not sure if he should app or not. He's got a motorcycle loan that's at 9% right now and wants to get the rate down. Our CU pulled Equifax. When I got my BCE AMEX pulled Experian so he thinks he'll be ok as far as HPs go. My question is should he app? He refuses to call to recon or verify any info so unless he's instantly approved he's not doing anything else. His first cards is over 2 years old. BB&T card that sits at $500 cl. He has a Kay card that is 8 months old, $1000 cl and a Discover IT $1200, about 2 months old. One pif and closed motorcycle loan and a second that's only about one month old. So, can he get a BCE?

[parakleet]

Not really understanding his refusal to verify information but the more important thing would be - what's his score? His income? Those things will be better indicators for chances at approval.

[09Lexie]

^ this plus his scores, AAOA would be nice too

[eagles08]

His AAOA 0.92 years and income is somewhere around $36,000. CK says he has a 708 and he free credit score has a 702. His Equifax fico says 639 though. That's all I have as far as his scores.

[riffdex]

Has he ever had a late payment on any accounts?
Does he keep high balances on his cards (high credit utilization ratio)?

I have read that AMEX prefers customers who don't maintain high balances on their cards. Essentially they want someone they can trust to PIF every month. His credit cards and AAoA's look very similar to how mine was (I was approved for the AMEX BCE). If the answer to the two questions above is "no", I think he should be a shoe in for the BCE.

[eagles08]

What I'm wondering is if this will hurt his chances for lowering that interest rate. Oh and also his current util is in low 30s.

[eagles08]

He's been good about making payments. No Lates no baddies. Util might be an issue but mine was close to 50% when I was approved for BCE

[09Lexie]

Since I'm going to discount his FAKOs, the EQ CS is a little low for his first Amex revolver IMO. Maybe it's the new accts dragging his CS down

[09Lexie]

From your siggy, your CS are almost 50-100 points higher. He needs to get that util down imo

[eagles08]

Yeah, very true. He says he just made a couple decent payments so he's just waiting for them to report which is smart