topic Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day! in Business Credit

AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

fm92555 — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 04:14:23 GMT

I started an LLC in February last year to start building credit lines to eventually have lines large enough to take some good business opportunities as they come along. I started with a business AMEX as that was easier to get with the personal profile I have with them. I built a good reputation with them again after being blacklisted for about a decade. So my initial Business Blue Cash card I beleive was 3k, then CLI to about 5-7k, now up to 15k. I also took their offer for 30k points by opening a bus checking account with 5k in deposit in January.

I was also working on new accounts with PNC, first a bank account and then 9 months later a credit card 17.5k, and U.S. Bank with a 3k credit card.

Amex sends me a letter today that I am pre-approved for a bus line of credit. From reading the boards here I felt good I could get something from 5-25k but I was holding out on any new accounts to get my scores up (750's-760's) into the 800's. Well the letter said I could pre-check the amount they would give me without a hard pull. So I check and I laughed when they came back with an amount of $115k with fixed interest rates quoted 3% for 6 month, 8% for 12 month.

Of course I was saying to myself, "ya but when I actually apply I will get much less and much more expensive". I know that many applications with Amex are SP and all but my first card were SP, so I decided it was worth the chance.

BOOM! 115k LOC Approved. No application fee, No prepayment penalties, no draw fees, no personal hard pull yet!

I had to connect my PNC account because that is where I put my transactions, not much just 10k or so in transactions in the past 4-5 months, but I did have a balance right now of 17k. I have sacrificed and pulled some money from a 401k loan for 1 year to show these balances in the business accounts. I will be paying that off now.

I didn't think I would get something this high for another 18 months or so after I built up other credit lines in the 25-50k range first. I did make an initial draw on the credit line for two reasons; first so PNC and other lenders can see that amount hit my account and second because I can't beleive it is true and I want to make use of it before they realize they were wrong.

So for me it has been a good day. I won't use this LOC much accept to build a better profile to get more lines. I know I will pay a little for interest to make use of the LOC, but I am willing to pay the price. At least it is not like some of the other high cost loans I see.

I will keep looking for a hard pull on my reports, but I haven't go a notification as of yet! I don't know if this reports to personal so i will always have to make sure I pay by statement date.

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

Epiki71 — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 04:38:09 GMT

congrats on the approval.

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

Schmoopy — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 06:17:58 GMT

Congrats. if you didnt' get a hard pull yet you probably won't.

I have a personal card with Amex and when I applied to a business cc they didn't do a hard pull at all!

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

JoeRockhead — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 08:04:15 GMT

Very nice thing to have at your disposal, congratulations on your Amex BLOC approval!

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

SouthJamaica — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 12:02:47 GMT

@fm92555 wrote:
I started an LLC in February last year to start building credit lines to eventually have lines large enough to take some good business opportunities as they come along. I started with a business AMEX as that was easier to get with the personal profile I have with them. I built a good reputation with them again after being blacklisted for about a decade. So my initial Business Blue Cash card I beleive was 3k, then CLI to about 5-7k, now up to 15k. I also took their offer for 30k points by opening a bus checking account with 5k in deposit in January.

I was also working on new accounts with PNC, first a bank account and then 9 months later a credit card 17.5k, and U.S. Bank with a 3k credit card.

Amex sends me a letter today that I am pre-approved for a bus line of credit. From reading the boards here I felt good I could get something from 5-25k but I was holding out on any new accounts to get my scores up (750's-760's) into the 800's. Well the letter said I could pre-check the amount they would give me without a hard pull. So I check and I laughed when they came back with an amount of $115k with fixed interest rates quoted 3% for 6 month, 8% for 12 month.

Of course I was saying to myself, "ya but when I actually apply I will get much less and much more expensive". I know that many applications with Amex are SP and all but my first card were SP, so I decided it was worth the chance.

BOOM! 115k LOC Approved. No application fee, No prepayment penalties, no draw fees, no personal hard pull yet!

I had to connect my PNC account because that is where I put my transactions, not much just 10k or so in transactions in the past 4-5 months, but I did have a balance right now of 17k. I have sacrificed and pulled some money from a 401k loan for 1 year to show these balances in the business accounts. I will be paying that off now.

I didn't think I would get something this high for another 18 months or so after I built up other credit lines in the 25-50k range first. I did make an initial draw on the credit line for two reasons; first so PNC and other lenders can see that amount hit my account and second because I can't beleive it is true and I want to make use of it before they realize they were wrong.

So for me it has been a good day. I won't use this LOC much accept to build a better profile to get more lines. I know I will pay a little for interest to make use of the LOC, but I am willing to pay the price. At least it is not like some of the other high cost loans I see.

I will keep looking for a hard pull on my reports, but I haven't go a notification as of yet! I don't know if this reports to personal so i will always have to make sure I pay by statement date.

Wow. Congratulations. That is amazing.

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

TMDSCT — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 14:03:53 GMT

Congratulations! I kept getting a pop up when I logged into AMEX business cards stating my business was pre-approved for a BLOC of $25k, with no impact to my credit. I finally pulled the trigger and received that exact amount without a HP. I recieved a call the next day from AMEX account manager telling me once I connected my business checking accounts the system would evaluate the line of credit for the first 30 days and it was likely I would receive a much higher credit line. But IMO the fees seem to be a bit high and the term a little short for anything I might be interested in. But I agree it's nice to know I have it there if I need it.

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

fm92555 — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:03:56 GMT

I received those as well and I just brushed them off. I didn't beleive I was able to get a 25k loan yet.

I am going to see how the draw works when paying the LOC back after a week. I was looking online and other lines of credit by internet lenders are crazy expensive. My next attempt will be PNC as I beleive their credit line is $175 annual fee + interest costs. But I think I want to wait another 6 months and that will give me over 18 months in business.

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

URHomeInvestments — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:51:58 GMT

Thank you for writing up the entire story. I just received a similar offer in the mail, also have a relationship with AMEX on the personal side, but they burned me on the business side. They extended a gold card and then said they were no longer offering that card. It was a pain to pay back at the time they wanted it paid back. The burning can go both ways, just saying. Anyway, I am also working on the personal credit and also didn't want a HP. Awesome line!

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

fm92555 — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 23:46:09 GMT

I originally wanted back in with AMEX after the blacklisting just to know I could.

In the past couple years they have been very generous even though we had a rough past. To be honest, I will always be careful with them as I know they will cut your credit lines quick at the first sign of a problem. But now that I have had that experience I will cautiously use what they give me to the fullest.

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

URHomeInvestments — Tue, 16 May 2023 18:29:08 GMT

@fm92555We have a PNC close by, and you have had a great outcome with the steps you have taken. I have one business account, but one more LLC that needs an account. I'm grateful that you outlined those steps. Hope to report similar success in the near future. Thank you for your original post. This business forum has so much to offer!

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

Xanthos472 — Wed, 17 May 2023 14:12:42 GMT

Congrats! Thought my approval @ 75K was the highest I'd seen, but this is phenomenal. Mind sharing some biz DP's?

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

tjs19593 — Wed, 17 May 2023 22:16:14 GMT

Very Impressive! Congrats.

I keep getting the popup but they are clear to let me know that I am not pre=approved but can still try to apply. Ugh. We do lots of AMEX business, fico's over 830, 0% credit utilization, mid 6 figures go through our checking account in a year. I havent applied, just was put off by not being pre-approved.

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

LOC — Thu, 18 May 2023 00:46:58 GMT

Congratulations

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

cashorcharge — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 22:05:35 GMT

WooHoo!! Congratulations on your outstanding LOC Approval!!👏🏼🍾🥂

I would think that even if you don't use it all in the time permitted...you'll establish a good track record with AMEX to continue getting offers on such LOC products in the future!

Re: AMEX Business Line of Credit, A very good day!

fm92555 — Tue, 13 Jun 2023 04:39:24 GMT

@Xanthos472 wrote:
Congrats! Thought my approval @ 75K was the highest I'd seen, but this is phenomenal. Mind sharing some biz DP's?

I was blacklisted from Amex for a decade because of defaults in the recession. I have an 18 month old llc.

I had 3 personal Amex cards and 1 business card at the time that I used alot with the credit line of about 7k on the business one at the time. That card was purely based off personal credit (FICO 8 scores around 750-765). I had a personal savings with a small $500.00 sitting in it for a year and I also opened a business checking with a small amount in it.

I got a good busines credit card line from PNC 6 months ago (17k based on personal because I only had the Amex busines BCP) and used it a little to show up on bus credit. I had a couple large sales in the past few months, not a lot of profit but high dollar amounts about 30k each. I also had a loan from myself to the business in and out of my account .

My average balance for the past 5 months was about 30k in my bank account from my initial start up money. All this appeared as solid cash flow for the past 3-4 months when they linked to the account for my initial application.

After I connected to my account and they approved me for the credit line I changed my password on the account and that stopped the linking. I will link it again if they make me or when I am near the 1 year review.

Amex is a solid lender but will definitly base their approvals off of you personal relationship with them and the cash flow you can show. I feel they like it when you have multiple accounts with them just as if they were a traditional bank.

My initial rate in March was I think 8% for a 12 month term. After I borrowed some and paid it back early I got an email saying they lowered my rate.

Now, this is not an 8% rate for a full year even though they present it that way. Your rate is actually higher because you don't get the use of the full amount for an entire year, they want their amotized payments. However, they don't charge other miscelaneous fees for each draw of funds and there were no fees to get the credit line.

Here is a pic of the cost of funds for me currently: