topic Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold in Credit Card Approvals

Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

KJinNC — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 02:28:03 GMT

My profile only goes back to April, except for an old gas card on Equifax, and an AU added in June. I have severe credit-seeking behavior and numerous hard inquiries in recent months. So, I am excited that I got approved for the Amex Delta Gold, though it's not normally considered that hard to get, and my CL is only $1,000.

I didn't prequalify for anything except subprimes and secured cards (not even many of those) until about a week and a half ago, when the Delta Gold started appearing on my incognito prequalified offers list. It was the only card to appear there. I applied and was insta-declined. I called to get reconsidered, and today, received a letter in the mail saying they stood by their decision and still declined me.

Today, I noticed that when I clicked the Apply button for Marriott Bonvoy, it said "KJinNC, you are preapproved!" Surprised, I checked other cards, and noticed that I saw that language on all credit cards (though not on charge cards, perhaps because I had a charge card already). I am in the middle of planning a trip to Europe, which will be on Delta, so ... .... ... after staring at the words "you are preapproved" for half an hour, I went incognito and applied again. I was shocked to be approved, though for only $1,000.

Question, if I were to call and say I need a higher limit to buy plane tickets on the card, is that something they might do, or must I wait 91 days for a credit limit increase?

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

Hockeypnc1 — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 02:34:06 GMT

How does incognito mode help?

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

KJinNC — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 02:36:18 GMT

@Hockeypnc1 wrote:
How does incognito mode help?

I can't see prequalified offers unless I use incognito - the tab doesn't appear on my web browser. That may be because I have a corporate card, I can't really troubleshoot to find out. But in any case, conventional wisdom is that you usually get better SUBs via incognito.

I saw preapproval for the card without incognito, then went incognito and checked for prequalified offers to get the slightly better SUB (35k miles instead of 30k).

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

credit_is_crack — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 02:54:15 GMT

Congrats on your Approval @KJinNC! From my experience, they won't budge on adjusting your limit, but SOMETIMES they'll let you spend over limit. $1k is the borderline "we're going to take a chance on you" limit. They bucket people just like Cap1, just not as aggressively. In 91 days as long as your scores stay (or grow) you should be able to get it up to $3k, and then in 6 more months up to $9k.

Keep in mind Amex only lets you increase a credit limit on any one of their cards every six months so you'll need to choose either grow 1 and leave the other behind for a year, or flip flop between them.

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

KJinNC — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 02:58:46 GMT

Thanks. If I did want to ask for a bump, is there a particular number I should call, or is it all the same including chat?

My other Amex card is a charge card, so, no need to ask for a CLI on it. Though I am also interested in getting a hotel card, but I don't know if I'll push my luck on it in the near future!

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

credit_is_crack — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 03:44:10 GMT

Amex has one of the best CLI systems. Whether you call, chat or do it online it will be painless. Some banks (like Synchrony) have a higher likelyhood of a SP CLI depending on how you ask for it, but Amex is consistent with theirs.

I’ve done every one of mine online and never had an issue. It will let you know quickly and let’s say you ask for 3k and it denies, then you can go back ask for 2800, 2700, 2600 and keep countering until it approves you. Several people have done this and get approved just fine

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

Jannelo — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 04:47:35 GMT

Congratulations!!!!

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

Kchristophe11 — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 17:14:44 GMT

How do you do the incognito search?

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

KJinNC — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 17:36:11 GMT

It may work a bit differently depending operating system and browser, but I use Chrome on a Mac. In the upper right, there are three vertical dots. Click them and you see a list of options, one of which is incognito window. Choose that, then go to the American Express web site. Check for prequalified offers and enter your information (name, address etc). You will then get a list of prequalified offers. You can click to apply then. You also can apply for any other card via incognito, but I'm not sure there's a benefit to doing that if you didn't get a prequalified offer for that card with a better SUB. Hope that helps!

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

M_Smart007 — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 17:54:13 GMT

Congrats on your Amex approval!

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

Anonymous — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 01:49:01 GMT

@KJinNC wrote:
My profile only goes back to April, except for an old gas card on Equifax, and an AU added in June. I have severe credit-seeking behavior and numerous hard inquiries in recent months. So, I am excited that I got approved for the Amex Delta Gold, though it's not normally considered that hard to get, and my CL is only $1,000.

I didn't prequalify for anything except subprimes and secured cards (not even many of those) until about a week and a half ago, when the Delta Gold started appearing on my incognito prequalified offers list. It was the only card to appear there. I applied and was insta-declined. I called to get reconsidered, and today, received a letter in the mail saying they stood by their decision and still declined me.

Today, I noticed that when I clicked the Apply button for Marriott Bonvoy, it said "KJinNC, you are preapproved!" Surprised, I checked other cards, and noticed that I saw that language on all credit cards (though not on charge cards, perhaps because I had a charge card already). I am in the middle of planning a trip to Europe, which will be on Delta, so ... .... ... after staring at the words "you are preapproved" for half an hour, I went incognito and applied again. I was shocked to be approved, though for only $1,000.

Question, if I were to call and say I need a higher limit to buy plane tickets on the card, is that something they might do, or must I wait 91 days for a credit limit increase?

Congrats on the Delta Gold... Great Card..

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

CreditJourney007 — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 02:56:25 GMT

@credit_is_crack wrote:
Amex has one of the best CLI systems. Whether you call, chat or do it online it will be painless. Some banks (like Synchrony) have a higher likelyhood of a SP CLI depending on how you ask for it, but Amex is consistent with theirs.

I’ve done every one of mine online and never had an issue. It will let you know quickly and let’s say you ask for 3k and it denies, then you can go back ask for 2800, 2700, 2600 and keep countering until it approves you. Several people have done this and get approved just fine

I thought if you were denied, you have to wait 90 days?

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

KJinNC — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:07:27 GMT

I read somewhere that if you are denied because you haven't had the card long enough, you can still try after 61 days. And by the way, I was denied because I haven't had the card long enough

So, I'll try in 61 days ... meanwhile, I talked with someone at Amex who said I can use the card to buy plane tickets by overpaying right before the purchase. Say the CL is $1,000 and the tickets are $2,000 - if I push a payment of $1,000 or more, then buy the tickets, according to him, that would work. Not an ideal solution, but at least it's a solution that would let me use the card's perks for travel.

Re: Surprise approval, Amex Delta Gold

dsotm76 — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 13:36:08 GMT

Welcome to the AMEX Delta Gold family! I love mine! Congratulations!!!!