topic Re: AMEX Personal Loan! in Personal Finance

AMEX Personal Loan!

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Oct 2018 21:29:48 GMT

So a few months ago I decided to finally consolidate my medical debt, moving debt, and new-house unexpected purchases into a loan. All personal loans were showing as high interest. I ended up taking a 5 year 15.99% loan with Discover, with the intent of searching out for different options a few months later so that I could make sure to PIF each month on my credit cards.

Two payments on the personal loan later, and it reporting to the credit bureaus (FINALLY!), I actually received a personal loan offer worthwhile from AMEX. Lately, they have been like $2900, or $4500. But Sunday I finally saw an offer for up to $8,900 at a max APR of 8.98%. I took $8,600 and filled out my information. I was a bit upset because I received the notification it would require further review. This morning I got an email saying my loan disclosure was ready to sign. The APR was the max, at 8.98%, but for a loan for 36 months instead. My payment will be $20 more a month, but will be paid off 2 years faster!

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 14:44:58 GMT

Consistent with other posts, the money was in my checking account this morning. Not too bad. 50 hour turnaround time from the time I applied.

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

Appleman — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 16:37:30 GMT

Thanks for sharing your experience, always apprectiated. Glad you were able to knock that interest rate down!

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

UncleB — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 15:42:07 GMT

Congrats on your new Amex loan, @Anonymous!

My own experience with an Amex loan last year was great as well... I would definitely use them again!

The only room for improvement would be to make it where you can make the payment using the Android app (you have to use the website), but this is a really small gripe - that I must look that hard to have a "complaint" speaks volumes.

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

AverageJoesCredit — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 16:19:26 GMT

I wish i knew how one qualifies for Amex. My guess is $ but would be nice to be invited to the big show

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

UncleB — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 16:24:06 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
I wish i knew how one qualifies for Amex. My guess is $ but would be nice to be invited to the big show

Since I don't have $$$ myself my guess is that consistent use on their cards put you on the radar... it's always a coin-toss if I'll be on their radar at any given time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 16:53:02 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
I wish i knew how one qualifies for Amex. My guess is $ but would be nice to be invited to the big show
Since I don't have $$$ myself my guess is that consistent use on their cards put you on the radar... it's always a coin-toss if I'll be on their radar at any given time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have no clue what really qualifies someone. When I was carrying a small-ish balance with AMEX ($2,000 on $12,000 limit with 0% interest balance transfer) I never received offers. When I carried a really small balance of like $500 with interest, I received a couple of small offers. Once I paid off all my credit cards except for one which is a 60-month 0% interest payment plan, I received higher offers, but nothing higher than $4,500. Once the personal loan from Discover posted, I received an offer slightly above the loan balance.

I think their goal is to take personal loans/debts away from other companies, but only if you look good and low risk (not being high utilization on a single account may be the deal breaker in my instance, as I had a balance I was only paying down $100/month from a balance transfer on a US Bank card from medical debt 2 years ago (it was $4,000, paid down from $9,000) while fixing up my new house... I had to pump about $20,000 into the house between down-payments and updates). This ended up putting me about $4,500 more in revolving debt than I was before buying the house, for a total of $9,000.

Moral of the story... when buying a house always have more than you think you would need (which I did), but then go above and beyond that (which I didn't). But I'm glad AMEX has opened the door for fixed payments to rid myself of the remaining high-interest debt I have.

Last year I did put about $20,000 through AMEX credit cards. I've actually stopped using them in the last couple months and switched all my spending to my Fidelity Rewards card. I'm not the type to maximize rewards on multiple cards, I like simplicity in paying bills. So I normally maximize rewards on one or two credit cards. Right now it's Fidelity and then Lowe's for the 5% off discount.

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 20:20:04 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
Congrats on your new Amex loan, @Anonymous!

My own experience with an Amex loan last year was great as well... I would definitely use them again!

The only room for improvement would be to make it where you can make the payment using the Android app (you have to use the website), but this is a really small gripe - that I must look that hard to have a "complaint" speaks volumes.

I agree Uncle B. Apple's app lacks the same thing. Maybe in the future they can integrate installment loan payments from mobile pay.

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

Anonymous — Sat, 13 Oct 2018 21:59:02 GMT

Congrats! That’s an awesome deal!

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

JoeLuvsHisCredit — Sun, 14 Oct 2018 15:14:34 GMT

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

AverageJoesCredit — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 01:34:14 GMT

Thanks Op for your post, made me curious and well, probably my most proud day in credit to date

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 20:08:45 GMT

@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Thanks Op for your post, made me curious and well, probably my most proud day in credit to date

Aww! Congrats!

Re: AMEX Personal Loan!

AverageJoesCredit — Mon, 15 Oct 2018 22:21:56 GMT

Thanks Curious im about to check again to see if offer is still as available lol