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@Crashem wrote:
OP,
Some comments that May or may not be helpful.
1) All Amex charge cards with exception of long lost unicorn basically have same approval chances
2) No reason not to go for PRG for first year. AFs are waived and sign on bonus is higher. After a year, you can look at spending and see which one makes more sense.
3) Dont really pay too much attention to the reasons Amex gave you. They kind of laundry list reasons when they reject someone. I would guess key factors would be short history (assuming those 4 cards in signature are your only open cards) combined with previous significant baddies.
With your ex fico, you are borderline and obviously on the wrong side of the border. Assuming this is first Amex (let me know either way), I would target your next app for beginning of December to get your member date set for this year. What you need to so is sculpt your reported utilization to ideal for application in December. That means being on top of payments in November . If you don't understand what I mean by ideal utilization, let me know.
Great advice, Crashem. Thank you so much! I may have been a bit overdramatic in some of my previous posts since my utilization is at 3% right now, and I'm paying weekly to keep it under 5%. I'm an Excel master after 5 years of debit-only living (I have a formula for my util in my spreadsheet ).
I was researching Amex approvals last night and the number I kept seeing was 6 months of history for a guaranteed, so that's what I was going for. I only got these cards end of September, so if I was to app before the New Year, it would be about 3 months of history (I have had no revolving history for 5 years now). Am I being too conservative?
I think you're thinking of someone else, Crashem. I don't have a credit relationship with AMEX right now. But that will change. Oh, change is about to happen, you can always count on that.
Oh, update. My plan right now is to app for the PRG in 3 months (then 6 months, then 9 months, etc... until approved ) pick up the MR points, get a gift card or whatever, then bluff to get AF waived on year 2 or PC to the green. Ready, set, hike!