American Express Delta Reserve Card Data points to get approved

[AWill71i]

Just want to know what data points would be needed to get approved for the Delta Reserve Card for American Express. If you have any tips on what can be done by someone to improve their chances of approval. That would be appreciated.

[GZG]

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@AWill71i wrote:

Just want to know what data points would be needed to get approved for the Delta Reserve Card for American Express. If you have any tips on what can be done by someone to improve their chances of approval. That would be appreciated.

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a great credit history, preferably with cc limits over $10k 

but amex is rather easy to get approved for assuming you already have good credit 

so if you wanted to improve your chances of getting approved, I'd work on building higher credit limits so I can show that I can handle a $650 AF card

[AWill71i]

Would getting an easier American Express card than upgrading to a Reserve card help?

[coldfusion]

If you currently only have limits on your existing cards that are under roughly say $5K then maybe.   Same if your Experian FICO 8 score is less than somewhere around the 680-690 range.   Understand that if you were to go this route and were approved due to govt regulations you wouldn't be able to request an upgrade of the card for 12 months.

[Zoostation1]

@coldfusionThere's DPs of marginal scores getting approved, but with pretty low limits.  It's not like CSR, VX, or even CSP with min SLs, so I don't think it's out of the question for someone to get approved with a low limit.  That being said I'm not suggesting it's super comon and I think we need to know more about their profile to have a good feel for the OPs odds.  I tend to think of Amex as stingier on approvals for no AF revolvers than anything else in their portfolio and loosest on the AF charge cards.  I would also think they could get a double pull - EX8 and TU8 for a first Amex ( I was double pulled for BCP a couple years ago).

[coldfusion]

CARD act requires the SL on a new card be at least 4X the 1st year's annual fee, and back when the Delta Reserve's AF was $550  it was fairly common understanding that AMEX' positioning was for new cards to be issued with a starting limit off at least $3100.

I think you already understand this, but the rule of thumb with AMEX is that while the reasons for why a score is what it is are very relevant it's possible to get an approval with an EX FICO 8 score somewhere around 650+/-  but odds increase even for premium cards at the 680/690 threshold.   Given that AMEX currently does not hard pull unless an approval is made and accepted the biggest risk is I think probably the 90 day wait before you become eligible again for them consider approving a subsequent application if you got a credit-based denial.   If OP gets an approval and doesn't like the limit extended they can just reject the offer and the world at large will never know.

[TRC_WA]

I started with a $10k Delta Gold in early 2022... and they upgraded it last year to the Reserve.

No upgrade in CLI though despite my income nearly doubling at the end of 2023.

[dfwxjer]

I'm not sure I understand the need for a high AF premium travel card with marginal scores. Spend that AF money on getting your credit report cleaned up and debt paid off. 

[DXness]

The ideal customer for this card is a high spender with relatively high income who pays off all cards monthly, has a history of managing cards with limits over $6.5K, and who thinks nothing of a $650 AF.  Past approvals on Myfico for this card include a person who spent $75K on another card, a person with a $25K limit on another card, and a person who qualified for a $17K SL at approval.  Do these kinds of things describe you?  Forget about credit scores, think about if your credit profile matches that kind of person.  A high score is not necessary to get approved for this and a clean profile is not necessary either, it is after all a co-brand, but you still need real profile strength to drive this card.

For an example of what Amex is NOT looking for, OP had a CO for $200 in 2022 and 3 COs overall.  Hopefully those are gone now, cause there is no way I would ever want to show a $200 CO to Amex.  For the record, I am a rebuilder and am not judging you at all for that, but Amex is an issuer where your relationship is defined by your spend and potential/ability to spend.  Amex also hates when a cardholder carries a balance and OP has also mentioned needing to pay down cards in the past.  You don't do this with Amex, you pay them in full.  They do offer a pay over time feature, even on true revolvers,  but you're not actually supposed to touch that, like ever.

Without knowing what's on OP's current 2025 credit profile, all this is assumption, however.  Going by 2022, that's likely a denial, but a LOT can change in 3 years?

[Gregory1776]

@DXness 

"Amex also hates when a cardholder carries a balance and OP has also mentioned needing to pay down cards in the past.  You don't do this with Amex, you pay them in full.  They do offer a pay over time feature, even on true revolvers,  but you're not actually supposed to touch that, like ever."

im always curious about this, because when I've had to carry a balance, they're the ones I pick up (should have been disco), bad times, **bleep**ty employer, even poorer financial decisions on my part. AmEx Never took any kind of action against me, and I've touched the POT button before, a few times on things I shouldn't have bothered buying (cologne)