Amex CLI request with or without balance?

[Anonymous]

Cool.  I'm at 20 months, so I suppose that puts me right in the middle.

[chaos51]

I always pay in full for my Amex revolvers before my statement closes, but I keep a balance on my Platinum and just pay the statement balance each time it closes. However, both of my CLIs with Amex have been mid-cycle with a balance on my card at the time. First one was BCE from $2k - $6k, and today was my SPG from $10k - $30k. I really don't think it matters though.

[FinStar]

IME, it doesn't really matter OP. So as long as the account is eligible for the CLI and everything is in line with your profile (internally/externally).

Plus, I can understand the perspective, from a strategic standpoint, given that if an individual has multiple AMEX revolvers there's only a specific window of opportunity for each CLI.

Any CLIs I've received over the years include having a balance about to be PIF as well as another instance where there was no balance for a few months on another card. This also included a mix of my NPSL ones with and w/o a balance during the CLI request. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Sounds good.  I'm 3 for 3 on my Amex CLI requests, so I'm fairly confident that I'm doing the right thing with respect to my profile and that Amex sees my account and profile as favorable.  I'm always the type of person that likes to maximize things though, so if there's ever anything I can do better leading up to a CLI request I'm all about implementing it.