topic Re: American Express optima card in Rebuilding Your Credit

American Express optima card

Cskinner — Sat, 28 May 2022 15:36:11 GMT

American Express sent a offer saying I qualify for a optima card and good standing with them if I pay the balance in full. I also have 3 other cards with them that are C/O all in the 1k to 1.5k range that they've sent offers for a settlement. Would those need to be paid in full as well, or could I take the settlement offers for them, pay the optima offer in full and be in good standing?

Re: American Express optima card

creditgnome — Sat, 28 May 2022 15:43:17 GMT

in the same boat as you. i am $168 from getting back in with the optima on a 3400 debt i owed for the plum card. this is how i do it. I only pay in full or don't pay at all. never settle for less. just my take don't have to agree.

Re: American Express optima card

Rs26 — Sat, 28 May 2022 15:59:52 GMT

@Cskinner, if it helps at all, I just recently enrolled in their program to repay a similar balance and their conformation notice mentions the following:

"Please note, any other American Express Cards you have that are not in good standing may impact your ability to use your Optima Credit Card."

I'll try to attach a screenshot of the enrollment confirmation, so you can see the verbiage in its entirety.

Re: American Express optima card

Cskinner — Sat, 28 May 2022 16:11:27 GMT

@creditgnome Congrats on being so close to your pay off. I wish i could do the same lol I'd definitely pay every penny in full if I could. But there's just to much debt for me to do that, and still keep all my other bills current.

Re: American Express optima card

Cskinner — Sat, 28 May 2022 16:21:26 GMT

@Rs26 wrote:
@Cskinner, if it helps at all, I just recently enrolled in their program to repay a similar balance and their conformation notice mentions the following:

"Please note, any other American Express Cards you have that are not in good standing may impact your ability to use your Optima Credit Card."

I'll try to attach a screenshot of the enrollment confirmation, so you can see the verbiage in its entirety.

Okay, thanks. I noticed that too on my email. I wasn't sure what it means by open account though, because all my accounts with them are closed 🤔 I'm thinking about just calling them Monday and asking them directly. Maybe I can get a lump settlement offer for everything.

So is the optima card worth even having and given decent limits? I do love American Express cards, but at this point, I don't even care about having all the prestigious cards anymore 😂 I just want a small handful of decent ones to cycle my monthly bills through and be able to get decent rates on auto loans and a land loan eventually 🤔

Re: American Express optima card

creditgnome — Sat, 28 May 2022 16:32:21 GMT

i am pretty sure if u get the opitma you get 1/3 your limit back. i don't know about the multiple cards but definitely get back in either way. i am one of the rare guys on here with a 560 personal credit score and getting back in because of the agreement. ill say this JITIN the head guy doesn't play. in the beginning you can lower your amounts alittle bit if you think you can't make the payments but once you reach the later stages, they want the higher amounts. i was forced to stay at 200 towards the later payments when i wanted to stretch the last two months. I wanted stretch the second to the last to 100 and then pay the last at 268. they said no u pay 200 and then 168 for the last which kinda let me down.

some guys dont even go for optima and pass on the application and get in directly with the application for the good cards. i won't risk it because of my score ha. ill get in with the worse card and gradually get back to plum.

Re: American Express optima card

creditgnome — Sat, 28 May 2022 16:54:55 GMT

sorry brother, i meant take the one where u settle to pay for the full amount but do a monthly plan. its worth it. i am doing one card at a time with amex being the first to be paid off. barclays will be the last because they sued me in court.

Re: American Express optima card

Cskinner — Sat, 28 May 2022 16:56:36 GMT

@creditgnome

Ok, the more i think about it, i don't even know if that would be worth it for me to worry about keeping AE happy lol. My issue is i have so many other companies too.

My current game plan I'm debating is to get all my larger accounts into payment plans. Currently I can pay Wells Fargo $85 a month for 2 years, this AE account $48 for 2 years. And just need to get a agreement with Capital One for my largest account. Which is a collection with Jefferson Capital now. If my payments with these 3 can stay under 300 a month, I think I can knock put the smaller ones in single payments here and there. And be done with everything in 2 years.

I think I just need to call them and see what they can offer for all 4 cards, and then Capital One to see what kind of arrangements we can agree on and go from there 🤔

Re: American Express optima card

creditgnome — Sat, 28 May 2022 18:04:51 GMT

yea just pick your battles and only do what you can manage. i only do one card at a time but i have about 8k in cc debt from the year 2015. the main debt being barclays, discover, and wells fargo. i am on the blacker than black list with WF and barclays at the moment. earlier this year, i managed to get my 12k repo taken off my credit report when lawyers said i couldn't. i have the 3 letters to show from the bureaus. haven't seen it ever since. anything is possible my friend just dont lose hope.

Re: American Express optima card

Cskinner — Sat, 28 May 2022 18:38:05 GMT

@creditgnome wrote:
yea just pick your battles and only do what you can manage. i only do one card at a time but i have about 8k in cc debt from the year 2015. the main debt being barclays, discover, and wells fargo. i am on the blacker than black list with WF and barclays at the moment. earlier this year, i managed to get my 12k repo taken off my credit report when lawyers said i couldn't. i have the 3 letters to show from the bureaus. haven't seen it ever since. anything is possible my friend just dont lose hope.

I've thought about doing one card at a time, but I have commitment issues 😂 I'm thinking though if I can do a 2 year payment agreement for my 3 larger accounts and see the progress, It'll motivate me to sacrifice and pay the smaller ones off one at a time. Or maybe even wipe them out with our next tax returns . The smaller ones combined would be about 3k if they'd all settle at 40% 🤔 think I could have everything wiped out in 2 years or less, with 3 1/2 years to drop off. And sorry, I'm kind of using the post to brainstorm too 😅

Re: American Express optima card

TheKid2 — Sun, 29 May 2022 02:53:19 GMT

I took the Optima offer and made payments to PIF. They gave me $500 CL and it's stated that it isn't eligible for CLI ever. They aren't kidding since I've had it 3 years now and still at $500. Meanwhile, I have other cards all the way up to a $10k CL. I keep the Optima open and pay the annual fee as penance I guess. At the time I wouldn't have gotten any other card, so in retrospect I don't regret it. I'd take the Optima offer again.

The good news is that I have plenty of credit now and have been able to get other AMEX cards.

Re: American Express optima card

Cskinner — Sun, 29 May 2022 03:36:43 GMT

@TheKid2 wrote:
I took the Optima offer and made payments to PIF. They gave me $500 CL and it's stated that it isn't eligible for CLI ever. They aren't kidding since I've had it 3 years now and still at $500. Meanwhile, I have other cards all the way up to a $10k CL. I keep the Optima open and pay the annual fee as penance I guess. At the time I wouldn't have gotten any other card, so in retrospect I don't regret it. I'd take the Optima offer again.

The good news is that I have plenty of credit now and have been able to get other AMEX cards.

Ok thanks, that's good information to know and what I was wondering if the card was worth working for. I already have 3 cards now. Merrick, Ollo, and Capital 1 quicksilver secured. Hearing that, I don't think it would really make sense to take the offer just to have a card with a low balance that can never increase and a fee. I would love to repair my status with American Express and hopefully one day I can. For now though, with so much debt besides them. I'm thinking it's best to get everything to zero as quickly and cheap as possible. But thank you for the info. That really helps knowing more what the card is about.