topic Re: No Amex CLI for me :( in Credit Cards

No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:35:47 GMT

After being denied a CLI 90 days ago with Amex I submitted another request today. Immediately shot down (again) reason being overall debt too high (4% util) and total credit lines sufficient relative to income (total lines = 80% of my income, Amex = 33% of my income). No FICO or other negatives given. Looks like there is a limit to how generous they are with CLIs.

Has anyone experienced this with Citi? I'd like to get a CLI at my 6 month mark on my Forward but I am thinking they will give the same reasons.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:42:05 GMT

hey i also was rejected yesterday on BCP, with reason being too high Debt to Credit ratio (at 50%), but we just paid off all our credit cards, so hopefully this should be zero in a month. I suppose i'll wait for the score increase, then the soft pull from AMEX , which ill assume will mean they'll update their internal risk score. I also find this a bit bizarre given our AMEX plat has a ceiling of $60k....

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:51:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
hey i also was rejected yesterday on BCP, with reason being too high Debt to Credit ratio (at 50%), but we just paid off all our credit cards, so hopefully this should be zero in a month. I suppose i'll wait for the score increase, then the soft pull from AMEX , which ill assume will mean they'll update their internal risk score. I also find this a bit bizarre given our AMEX plat has a ceiling of $60k....

Interesting...I'm not sure I agree with their reasoning that revolvers default at a higher rate than charge cards do, hence much stingier limits with them. Regardless of which type of card I have if I am broke I can't pay it back, revolver or otherwise.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

LS2982 — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:27:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
After being denied a CLI 90 days ago with Amex I submitted another request today. Immediately shot down (again) reason being overall debt too high (4% util) and total credit lines sufficient relative to income (total lines = 80% of my income, Amex = 33% of my income). No FICO or other negatives given. Looks like there is a limit to how generous they are with CLIs.

Has anyone experienced this with Citi? I'd like to get a CLI at my 6 month mark on my Forward but I am thinking they will give the same reasons.

Sorry to hear

Just keep marchiing on and eventually you'll get some luv!

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

bichonmom — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:28:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
After being denied a CLI 90 days ago with Amex I submitted another request today. Immediately shot down (again) reason being overall debt too high (4% util) and total credit lines sufficient relative to income (total lines = 80% of my income, Amex = 33% of my income). No FICO or other negatives given. Looks like there is a limit to how generous they are with CLIs.

Has anyone experienced this with Citi? I'd like to get a CLI at my 6 month mark on my Forward but I am thinking they will give the same reasons.

Sorry to hear that. What is your current CL w/Amex?

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:53:25 GMT

Thanks everyone! Not too dissapointed but I would have liked higher limit on my BCE. There are months when I push through over $1000 on it so I have to make 2 payments to keep util low.

@bichonmom - My limits are 5000 Blue Sky and 3000 BCE. I'm a professional student so income is on the low end, hopefully just for now!

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

LS2982 — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:09:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks everyone! Not too dissapointed but I would have liked higher limit on my BCE. There are months when I push through over $1000 on it so I have to make 2 payments to keep util low.

@bichonmom - My limits are 5000 Blue Sky and 3000 BCE. I'm a professional student so income is on the low end, hopefully just for now!

Those are decent limits dyv! Maybe give them some more time to get to know your spending habits and garden your accounts and they should come around to you!

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:11:48 GMT

@LS2982 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks everyone! Not too dissapointed but I would have liked higher limit on my BCE. There are months when I push through over $1000 on it so I have to make 2 payments to keep util low.

@bichonmom - My limits are 5000 Blue Sky and 3000 BCE. I'm a professional student so income is on the low end, hopefully just for now!
Those are decent limits dyv! Maybe give them some more time to get to know your spending habits and garden your accounts and they should come around to you!

Thanks LS. I'm definitely not complaining since I know they've been generous given my income (or lack thereof). I should just sit tight!

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

bichonmom — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:21:46 GMT

If you're only paying $1k a month on a $3k CL card, I'd only pay once a month if I were you. I know some people do multiple payments in a month, but #1, that's usually when they are putting through several times the CL in a month and #2, I have read here that Amex doesn't like multiple payments made in a month. It triggers something in their system. I can't remember what it's called, but there is some kind of illegal activity that people do and one of the signs of it is multiple payments in a month.

You're not talking about a large sum here, but still I wouldn't do it if I were you. I have a very small bal on both my Amexes and I SO badly want to just put through a payment "so they know I can pay" because I'm terrified of a FR. But I'm not doing it because of what I have read about Amex and multiple payments in a month.

Just a thought... You might want to try just doing 1 payment a month (which can be before the stmt cuts, if you're concerned about your util) and then try again for a CLI in 3 mos. It may be that your income is preventing you from future CLIs. But I'd give that a try if I were you.

Also, another thought from their point of view: Why would a customer need to be making so many small payments to us? If they were in a good financial position, they would just be paying once a month. I may be wrong, but I think it's just not a good idea. And I've yet to read someone who successfully got a CLI with that tact either (when they're pushing multiple payments to show the CCC that they're spending lots of money on their card).

And one more reason to do one larger payment a month is the "high credit" that's being report to the CRAs. If you never allow your balance to go very high, it's going to affect your CLIs with other CCs and may also be affecting your CLI w/Amex, since they're not seeing a very high balance and may think you just don't really need a higher CL.

Just some thoughts.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:28:55 GMT

@bichonmom wrote:
If you're only paying $1k a month on a $3k CL card, I'd only pay once a month if I were you. I know some people do multiple payments in a month, but #1, that's usually when they are putting through several times the CL in a month and #2, I have read here that Amex doesn't like multiple payments made in a month. It triggers something in their system. I can't remember what it's called, but there is some kind of illegal activity that people do and one of the signs of it is multiple payments in a month.

You're not talking about a large sum here, but still I wouldn't do it if I were you. I have a very small bal on both my Amexes and I SO badly want to just put through a payment "so they know I can pay" because I'm terrified of a FR. But I'm not doing it because of what I have read about Amex and multiple payments in a month.

Just a thought... You might want to try just doing 1 payment a month (which can be before the stmt cuts, if you're concerned about your util) and then try again for a CLI in 3 mos. It may be that your income is preventing you from future CLIs. But I'd give that a try if I were you.

Also, another thought from their point of view: Why would a customer need to be making so many small payments to us? If they were in a good financial position, they would just be paying once a month. I may be wrong, but I think it's just not a good idea. And I've yet to read someone who successfully got a CLI with that tact either (when they're pushing multiple payments to show the CCC that they're spending lots of money on their card).

And one more reason to do one larger payment a month is the "high credit" that's being report to the CRAs. If you never allow your balance to go very high, it's going to affect your CLIs with other CCs and may also be affecting your CLI w/Amex, since they're not seeing a very high balance and may think you just don't really need a higher CL.

Just some thoughts.

What you say makes sense, thanks for your thoughts. I'll cut it down to 1 payment/month but probably hold off an asking for another CLI until end of the year or so. Like LS said just give them some more time to get to know me since I've only been with them 1 year.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

bichonmom — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:32:09 GMT

Good luck! Eventually they'll CLI.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

scottwagnon — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:39:03 GMT

this happened to me too. so it appears to be a new trend with amex. it appears that they are not as liberal with cli's now.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:01:42 GMT

@scottwagnon wrote:
this happened to me too. so it appears to be a new trend with amex. it appears that they are not as liberal with cli's now.

I think this is the most likely case. I can't fathom with our platinum ceiling & my considerable income why they denied. I may even have to give them a call.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

anderl — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:01:16 GMT

Interesting. I've always made multiple payments monthly; never hurt me

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:04:48 GMT

For my situation I'm almost certain its income related. They probably think their already being generous giving 8K of unsecured credit to someone with 24K income. I'm sure if I ever stopped PIF they would CLD in a heartbeat.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Tonya-E — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 02:55:38 GMT

Same thing happened to me OP. I tried at the 61 day mark. They said I didn't have enough history with them or something to that effect. I am a first time amex customer so I figure that is understandable. I have heard they are a little tougher on newbies and sometimes like to see 6 months of history. Since then though I have just decided screw it. I don't even think I am going to try again after 90 days or the 6 month mark. Unless something changes I will be stuck at my current credit limit until I get the notion to try again.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

scottwagnon — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 04:47:35 GMT

wow. i knoticed on the siggy a 1.1K FP. i have never heard of this. if i were to become anyone else for even an hour, for anyone that had an FP it would get instantly shut down by me.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Tonya-E — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 05:31:42 GMT

@Scott not sure if you noticed also that it is in my list of cards to close. I am closing 3 cards by August. I just didn't want to close all of them at once. It will be nixed, just happened to be my oldest account. However, contrary to many posts I have seen up here, having it hasn't prevented me from getting prime cards. But you are correct an it will be gone soon. It was a carry over from not so good credit days.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

scottwagnon — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:24:45 GMT

i dislike the idea of FP so much that i wouldn't just close it immeadiately; i would attempt to have it deleted from the credit report. to me this is like a cockroach in a delicious 10 piece fried fish box. no way no thanks. suprised that you got them to go to 1100 though. but you must have spent way too much money getting it that high.

if my credit was 400. i would still do anything to avoid FP. but i would be doing everything in my power to save money in order to build credit in the form of secured credit.

Re: No Amex CLI for me :(

Tonya-E — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:52:38 GMT

Lol! Ok I get it. But if this helps you to understand the account is 10 years old... Well 9 years 7 months. Makes that $1100 look like $200 now......lol. I don't mind having it on my report. I am not the first one that had one and surely won't be the last.