2nd AMEX - Declined - Thoughts?

[brewcrew87]

Hi all,

First the background story - I have been rebuilding my credit after a rough 8 years in college.  I have gone from FICOs in the low 600's to around 700 each.  Cleaned up the 2 baddies I had, and I have gotten my UTL down from 99% (yes 99%) to 38% at last check.

Current cards w/ limits (might be useful - personal income is $67k - w/DW approx $100k):

AMEX Blue Opened in 2007 - $2600 limit - 0% UTL

Chase Rewards (old WAMU card) Opened in 2006 - $5500 limit - 85% UTL (lowest normal APR)

Wells Fargo Rewards Opened in 2006 - $5500 limit - 35% UTL (all on a 6.9% promo BT offer)

Barclaycard Apple Financing Opened Jan 2014 - $4000 limit - 0% UTL - Trying to PC to Rewards card since no need for any new Apple gear.

Capital One Platinum (upset at this one, applied for it right before my last collection dropped) Opened 2 months ago - $2000 limit - 85% UTL (0% BT promo)

Discover IT Opened last month - $3500 limit 2% UTL reported - now at $2800 after BT offer

So as you can see, I am still working on lowering my UTL and getting out of CC debt from my college years.  Besides this debt, I have approx $16,000 in student loans, and two car loans - never late on anything.  Feels good finally getting ahead since our income goes pretty far in the midwest.

My current FICOs are 697 EQ - 710 TU - 713 EX.

I applied for the AMEX Everyday card since I heard that they don't HP for a denial.  Luckily it looks like that was the case for me, but I am kind of suprised I got declined.  I read up that it could've been that they used a recent SP instead of doing a new one at the time of the application - could that be true?  (still waiting on denial reasons and their application status page says my application cannot be accessed when I click to see the reasons).  My FICOs were as low as 640-668 as recently as mid Jan.

I know my UTL is high, but on EX I only have 2 INQ and I thought for sure a 713 would work as a current customer.  (Note - I did just pay off my AMEX from 85% UTL to 0% this past month)

Any advice?  I heard that reconing an AMEX denial is pretty much worthless.  The only real reason I applied was for the BT offer and the AAOA boost for backdating to 2007 to offset my new CCs.

[ojefferyo]

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@uecker4life wrote:

Hi all,

First the background story - I have been rebuilding my credit after a rough 8 years in college.  I have gone from FICOs in the low 600's to around 700 each.  Cleaned up the 2 baddies I had, and I have gotten my UTL down from 99% (yes 99%) to 38% at last check.

Current cards w/ limits (might be useful - personal income is $67k - w/DW approx $100k):

AMEX Blue Opened in 2007 - $2600 limit - 0% UTL

Chase Rewards (old WAMU card) Opened in 2006 - $5500 limit - 85% UTL (lowest normal APR)

Wells Fargo Rewards Opened in 2006 - $5500 limit - 35% UTL (all on a 6.9% promo BT offer)

Barclaycard Apple Financing Opened Jan 2014 - $4000 limit - 0% UTL - Trying to PC to Rewards card since no need for any new Apple gear.

Capital One Platinum (upset at this one, applied for it right before my last collection dropped) Opened 2 months ago - $2000 limit - 85% UTL (0% BT promo)

Discover IT Opened last month - $3500 limit 2% UTL reported - now at $2800 after BT offer

So as you can see, I am still working on lowering my UTL and getting out of CC debt from my college years.  Besides this debt, I have approx $16,000 in student loans, and two car loans - never late on anything.  Feels good finally getting ahead since our income goes pretty far in the midwest.

My current FICOs are 697 EQ - 710 TU - 713 EX.

I applied for the AMEX Everyday card since I heard that they don't HP for a denial.  Luckily it looks like that was the case for me, but I am kind of suprised I got declined.  I read up that it could've been that they used a recent SP instead of doing a new one at the time of the application - could that be true?  (still waiting on denial reasons and their application status page says my application cannot be accessed when I click to see the reasons).  My FICOs were as low as 640-668 as recently as mid Jan.

I know my UTL is high, but on EX I only have 2 INQ and I thought for sure a 713 would work as a current customer.  (Note - I did just pay off my AMEX from 85% UTL to 0% this past month)

Any advice?  I heard that reconing an AMEX denial is pretty much worthless.  The only real reason I applied was for the BT offer and the AAOA boost for backdating to 2007 to offset my new CCs.

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They are know for using the last SP, mine was well over a month ago so if I were to app for something that's the SP they would use. 

[Anonymous]

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@uecker4life wrote:

Hi all,

First the background story - I have been rebuilding my credit after a rough 8 years in college.  I have gone from FICOs in the low 600's to around 700 each.  Cleaned up the 2 baddies I had, and I have gotten my UTL down from 99% (yes 99%) to 38% at last check.

Current cards w/ limits (might be useful - personal income is $67k - w/DW approx $100k):

AMEX Blue Opened in 2007 - $2600 limit - 0% UTL

Chase Rewards (old WAMU card) Opened in 2006 - $5500 limit - 85% UTL (lowest normal APR)

Wells Fargo Rewards Opened in 2006 - $5500 limit - 35% UTL (all on a 6.9% promo BT offer)

Barclaycard Apple Financing Opened Jan 2014 - $4000 limit - 0% UTL - Trying to PC to Rewards card since no need for any new Apple gear.

Capital One Platinum (upset at this one, applied for it right before my last collection dropped) Opened 2 months ago - $2000 limit - 85% UTL (0% BT promo)

Discover IT Opened last month - $3500 limit 2% UTL reported - now at $2800 after BT offer

So as you can see, I am still working on lowering my UTL and getting out of CC debt from my college years.  Besides this debt, I have approx $16,000 in student loans, and two car loans - never late on anything.  Feels good finally getting ahead since our income goes pretty far in the midwest.

My current FICOs are 697 EQ - 710 TU - 713 EX.

I applied for the AMEX Everyday card since I heard that they don't HP for a denial.  Luckily it looks like that was the case for me, but I am kind of suprised I got declined.  I read up that it could've been that they used a recent SP instead of doing a new one at the time of the application - could that be true?  (still waiting on denial reasons and their application status page says my application cannot be accessed when I click to see the reasons).  My FICOs were as low as 640-668 as recently as mid Jan.

I know my UTL is high, but on EX I only have 2 INQ and I thought for sure a 713 would work as a current customer.  (Note - I did just pay off my AMEX from 85% UTL to 0% this past month)

Any advice?  I heard that reconing an AMEX denial is pretty much worthless.  The only real reason I applied was for the BT offer and the AAOA boost for backdating to 2007 to offset my new CCs.

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I'm an existing cardmember of AmEx.  Tried 2x in February for 2 new cards (BCE and Delta Gold).  Denied.  The letter they sent said they were using an Experian credit report dated January 30, 2015.  I'm going to give it a couple of months before I try again.