AMEX “Tier’d” Cards Myth?

[elixerin]

was messing around on AMEX site earlier, found out that i was "pre-approved!" for revolvers with intro and bonus, in fact im pre approved for all except green and gold which show expanding... doesn't this kinda throw the whole "easiest" amex to get approved for thing out the window?

Currently one business and one personal AMEX revolver holder along with platinum card

business revolver and charge card opened in same month (Jan 2020)

personal revolver opened Nov 2019

not sure if these DP's can even relate to this at all but here they are, thanks for the replies

[Anonymous]

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@elixerin wrote:

was messing around on AMEX site earlier, found out that i was "pre-approved!" for revolvers with intro and bonus, in fact im pre approved for all except green and gold which show expanding... doesn't this kinda throw the whole "easiest" amex to get approved for thing out the window?

Currently one business and one personal AMEX revolver holder along with platinum card

business revolver and charge card opened in same month (Jan 2020)

personal revolver opened Nov 2019

not sure if these DP's can even relate to this at all but here they are, thanks for the replies

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Glad someone else thinks so too.  I have always been in the same boat.  It is common understanding on the forums that the cards easiest to hardest to get approved for are: [easiest] co-branded > charge cards > core credit cards [hardest]

Having experimented myself with the apply buttons.  I've generally been pre-approved for all co-branded (up to highest AF) and core credit cards but not the green, gold or platinum.  

So, I've also been living in the proverbial opposite land.  Maybe they know what card your really really want and make that the hardest to get. ;(

There very well could be a formula for charge cards.  Or maybe it has changed recently since they are no longer referred to as charge cards (according to some online articles) 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

Maybe they don't trust you'll pay in full. Are you carrying a balance, or have been for a while?

[Anonymous]

I pass through $2000 to $2500 / month on a $1000 limit Delta Gold Amex.  No balance carried from month to month and always PIF multiple times a month.  

I'm convinced that because I never let a balance report, they don't see it as usage. 

[RobD3]

Steph, I have the same SL's on my cards and I mirror your spending and PIF pattern almost exactly. I have 2 AMEX revolvers, one co-branded and one not, both approved on 2/7/20. I'm still waiting on my first internal pre-approval, which if the DP of 2/90 holds should be sometime in May. I'd like to get out of low limit purgatory if possible, especially considering I have other top tier cards in the $8k - $15k SL range with 1% - 3% balances...

[Anonymous]

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@RobD3 wrote:

Steph, I have the same SL's on my cards and I mirror your spending and PIF pattern almost exactly. I have 2 AMEX revolvers, one co-branded and one not, both approved on 2/7/20. I'm still waiting on my first internal pre-approval, which if the DP of 2/90 holds should be sometime in May. I'd like to get out of low limit purgatory if possible, especially considering I have other top tier cards in the $8k - $15k SL range with 1% - 3% balances...

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What cards do you have and what was your score when you applied? 

[RobD3]

Hilton Surpass and the Cash Magnet. EXP 712

[elixerin]

Nope, i use the personal Platinum regularly and PIF (and when they don't feel like trusting me, multiple times a month)

im also soon just gonna start carrying balances on my revolving 0 intro cards but keep them low UTL only when it matters(181 day 3x CLI)... im good on almost all cards till pretty much mid 2021. You only get an intro APR period once so why not utilize it with proper caution

You believe carrying a revolving balance will hinder charge card approval odds? i actually wanted to go for a Schwab Platinum rather soon with Vanilla downgrade to Gold (just waiting to get out of the Chase jittery phase) and would hate my timing to get destroyed

OR tbh the Corona plan to just downgrade regular Plat for the while and run Schwab sometime later who knows:x

[elixerin]

@Steph they definitely see it internally as usage, my granted 61 day 3x increase consisted of a balance report at 18% and one at 1% UTL, however during the 60 days i ran about 4x of the 4k limit in charges. Might be something in the profile they don't like  

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I pass through $2000 to $2500 / month on a $1000 limit Delta Gold Amex.  No balance carried from month to month and always PIF multiple times a month.  

I'm convinced that because I never let a balance report, they don't see it as usage. 

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They definitely see the usage. They track it all. You can pull up your year-end totals. 

I put $2-3k a month on my Delta gold for about 15 months. They finally gave me the gold. They would remove it from the list of cards in the past if I apped for it. Probably because I burned them for around $11k.