2nd Amex card

[julia18330]

I have a Delta Gold, it's 5 months old, 1k CL. I run about 2-3k every month through it but was denied for a CLI two months ago. My score was around 700. Today my EX is 738, I preqalul'd for a Platinum card but canceled. I want a credit card with Amex but with a decent limit. If I apply, and it's not a CL I want, should I just close it? How will that effect my scores? Also, since it backdates I won't take a hit to aaoa? Thanks for the help! 

[JoeRockhead]

If my math is right, perhaps you asked too soon for the CLI which should have been three statements and 91 days after you opened the card. As far applying for another card with them goes, it's not guaranteed,  but most often with additional approvals from them its only a soft pull. So, in theory if you did get a SP approval for a second card and it wasn't an SL you are happy with, and considering Amex typically doesn't report new accounts immediately, and often not until the 2nd statement cuts, you could immediately close the new card and it likely wouldn't have any effect on your credit.

However, why bother with getting an approval to just cancel? I'd take the new approval and stick it out with them, and continue to build your relationship with them as they are known to have the ability to be very generous over time. Any points you lose for the new account, you should be able to recover fairly quickly.

[markbeiser]

As was pointed out, you likely requested a CLI too soon, you should try again, and if approved, every 91 days you are elligible for another.
The cap on a CLI with AmEx is 3x, and many of us have gone from a $1k limit to a $27k limit in as little as 9 months on our first AmEx credit card.
Once you are in the door with them and prove yourself, AmEx is much more generous with starting limits on subsequent cards.

[SouthJamaica]

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@julia18330 wrote:

I have a Delta Gold, it's 5 months old, 1k CL. I run about 2-3k every month through it but was denied for a CLI two months ago. My score was around 700. Today my EX is 738, I preqalul'd for a Platinum card but canceled. I want a credit card with Amex but with a decent limit. If I apply, and it's not a CL I want, should I just close it? How will that effect my scores? Also, since it backdates I won't take a hit to aaoa? Thanks for the help! 

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No, if you're approved for a credit card with Amex, and the starting limit is not as high as you would like, you should NOT close it.  Amex is great on soft pull CLI's, so your credit limit will grow over time.

[coldfusion]

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@julia18330 wrote:

I have a Delta Gold, it's 5 months old, 1k CL. I run about 2-3k every month through it but was denied for a CLI two months ago. My score was around 700. Today my EX is 738, I preqalul'd for a Platinum card but canceled. I want a credit card with Amex but with a decent limit. If I apply, and it's not a CL I want, should I just close it? How will that effect my scores? Also, since it backdates I won't take a hit to aaoa? Thanks for the help! 

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a) Not everybody qualifes to request their initial CLI after 91 days, for some cardholders it's 6 months. Either way since your original request was more than 30 days ago and you're definitely past the 91 day threshold  feel free to ask again now.

b) Having a $1K SL indicates a borderline approval i.e. they liked you enough to approve but wanted you to establish with them an emperical history of usage and prompt payment before opening the floodgates.  You may get a 3X approval now or the card may be slow to grow for the 1st couple of years, YMMV.  Either way since you have a $1K SL you should ask for $3K.

c) AMEX stopped backdating new cards about 8-9 years ago.    Additional cards will reference the same "Member Since" year that your 1st card was approved but cards opened since they updated their policy each report to the CRAs the actual date that card was opened, not the date of your 1st AMEX card.

d) No real point in closing a card right away if the approval didn't come with a SL you like.   It wouldn't prevent the account from reporting so wouldn't undo any impact to your scores tied to  having a new account report nor would it negate the impact of having a new inquiry report if AMEX did another hard pull  (which isn't common but which does happen - people who claim AMEX never HPs when an existing cardholder applies for another one are full of doodookakapoopoo)

e) When you prequaled for the Platinum did it come back with verbiage like "Julia18330, you're pre-approved!" ? 

[NAVYCHOP]

Don't forget that the Platinum card when approved should generally be No Preset Spending Limit (NPSL) and if you are running monthly charges through and paying in full that card should adjust to your spending over time and give you more spending flexibility than a $1k credit limit, even in the first month of they send you warnings that you are reaching their initial internal limit and need to pay the balance to spend more.  The Platinum card is useful as it does not report credit utilization-- ie if your bill is $1000 on your $1k credit card it will report as 100 percent credit utilization but will not do that on the Platinum card.