THANKS to SO many of you posting on the board about your personal experiences, strategies and above all truth and candor about how to fix your credit and face your own faults and foibles.
Got my AMEX SPG card today after applying back on 7/3, being declined on 7/20, asking for a recon on7/22, unsuccessfully talking to a very snappy CSR on 7/29 and sending a written recon request on 8/14. I appe'd for an SPG Business card after AMEX offered me the ability to upgrade my Business Gold to Business Platinum. I thought that things were going pretty well. The decision took more than two weeks to come back with a decline. I reconned by phone because I knew that I was having a $650 security company CO deleted. But it hadn't yet been deleted and I got nothing but scorn from the first CSR that I worked with. Fortunately I got the CO deletion confirmation letter on 8/12 after filing a "valid" complaint with the BBB to have the collection company removed. GW letters wouldn't work at all even though I'd PIF'd the bill more than a year ago.
I sent in the deletion letter, the AMEX decline response letter and a written explanation addressing each of the points for their rejection. Fortunately I could also tout solid AMEX Platinum payment history of very large monthly balances.
Walked outside today to see a UPS envelope which was totally unexpected because I hadn't ordered anything. Opened it up only to see a fat AMEX envelope inside. I litterally had to force myself to breathe for a couple minutes, and took the letter out of the UPS pack only after telling myself that AMEX wouldn't send a rejection letter overnight??? The problem was that the enveloped was a regular white Amex envelope stuffed with papers. Not at all like the packaging of my Gold or Platinum cards.
So many papers stuffed inside I couldn't even tell what it was. But I did see something that looked like a pool and an umberalla??? Opened it an actually saw a beautiful burgerndy piece of plastic with a big white sticker on top. Said a LOUD WHOOOPIE calmed down and realized that I didn't know what the CL was. Didn't matter if it was $100 bucks. THe letter worked and all the work to clean up my credit and get the derrogs removed WORKED! That was all that matterred.
I found the paper with the limit posted on top. Saw $2,000. I was somewhat happy but a bit miffed because I would have thought that a SPG would have at least a 5k limit??? But who am I to be ungreatful. All I could think about is building to 6k in 61 days if I could be successful at a 3x CLI. So my joy was a bit measured but I was still happy.
Being happy but not quite satisfied I looked at the limit paper again and after I GREAT BIG grin opened on my face I realized that the cash advance limit was $2,000, but the actual CL was $10,000. Now I can turn that into a 3x CLI that anyone would be greatful for.
All of you are wonderful and again the honesty with your stories advice and real life experiences is what made me work so hard to cleanup, improve and persist.
Most recent score after the CO deletion is 712EXP 713TU and EQ is still 653 as the have been incredibly slow in posting the deletion. I have also disputed it to try and force them to get he delete done.
All Thanks to myFico:
AMEX Business Platinum (NPSL) | AMEX Business SPG ($25,000) | AMEX Delta Sky Platinum ($10,000 | AMEX H. Honors ($2,000) | Citi Hilton Honors Reserve ($14,000) | Citi Diamond Preferred ($4,700) | Citi ThankYou Preferred ($3,200) | Chase Freedom ($3,000) | FNBO Platinum MC (awaiting the limit) | HSBC Platinum ($2,000) | US Bank Cash+ Visa Signature ($5,000)
