approved for gold Amex Card- No credit limit!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I was just approved for an Amex gold card.  My concern and questions is that I dont have a credit limit.  Can anyone interpret- NOT HAVING A CREDIT LIMIT.  How does that affect my credit, utilization. What is the up's and down's not having a credit limit

[joestay]

Well, there is a hidden credit limit but the limit is not reported.  To check the max you can spend, you can go online into your account and use the "check your spending" button to see how much you can spend.  Just put in a low number (about 300) and check.  Then if you are approve to spend that much, enter a higher number until it says no.  Then you will have an idea of what your limit is.

[Datx]

Congrats on the approval. I actually just got a pre-approval letter for the same exact card from Amex just today, but I think they screwed up. No way, will I be qualified for an amex gold. I have way too many inquiries on EX and have unpaid collections.

[Achase]

actually if you want to find out how much amex will let you spend you should call customer service once you receive the card and ask to be transfered over to the account services dept. and they will tell you how much will be approved until they get familiar with your account activity...it could be as low as 500 or sky might be the limit for you who knows

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was just approved for an Amex gold card.  My concern and questions is that I dont have a credit limit.  Can anyone interpret- NOT HAVING A CREDIT LIMIT.  How does that affect my credit, utilization. What is the up's and down's not having a credit limit

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[Anonymous]

How does not having a credit limit affect my credit report.

[llecs]

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@Anonymous wrote:
How does not having a credit limit affect my credit report.

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Welcome to the world of an Amex charge card! I have a Green and love it. And while we all have to pay in full every month, the benefits are great, and from personal experience, the habit I developed of PIF transcended all cards and helped with overall util.

Per FICO scoring, the balance and the "high balance" are ignored for util and scoring purposes on almost all FICO scoring models. So, your EQ score from here, for example, will be unaffected by the util of that card. However, TU98, which is the version of TU FICO score as pulled from here, does factor in your Amex's balance and "high balance". So, the first month that this card reports, it'll effectively be maxed out if the balance and high balance are the same. Next month, if you get a lower balance to report, then the prev. high balance and current balance is used and then your util on that card improves. If you ever go for a mortgage in the future, know that your future lender likely won't use that TU98 model and therefore the balance won't be of a concern. I'm home hunting now and my lender totally ignored my Amex TL.

With regards to reporting, my payment is due at the last day of the month and the statement doesn't cut until the following month around the 15th. I just make sure my balance is low by the 15th if TU98 and FICO scoring is a concern.

ETA...ditto to Achase. You do have a magical, unreported CL with Amex. Mine also was $500 to start. The CSR said when I first got the card that the limit with them will increase 1.5 times based on spending. I think it was more. I started with $500 in September last year and by Christmas I was putting over $2500/mo on it. I got capped with a $7000 unreported limit after being FR'd, but my budget is $6000/mo and I put every dime of that on that card.