Amex Gold Application

[Anonymous]

Howdy yall, 

So my credit journey to clean up my history has been rather successful so far. I paid off some old accounts (1 baddie from 2013) and went from a 608 EXP in March to a 709. I have gotten two cards since with 5.5k CL total, and for 2 months paid them off in full each cycle, current UTL: 3%. AAoA is 3 yrs. I've been looking at the gold card for quite some time and am wondering when would be the right time to apply? I'm considering gardening a little more considering the baddie, but if I'm eligible now why not apply? Any suggestions would be great! Also note I tried the website with the soft inquiry and nothing popped up.

[Anonymous]

Just to clarify, I’d suggest hitting Apply Now and see what comes up. If it says “muffinman626, you’re preapproved!” you can basically take it to the bank that you’re going to get the card if you want it. If it says “Expanding your membership with us is easy...” then you may still get the card, but it’s less certain and relies on the strength of your profile.

That being said, you have age on your accounts, a good score, prime utilization. I think if you want Gold, you’re sitting in a position that is worth the HP. What would kill your app would be a BK less than 61 months ago, or other recent derogs that you haven’t mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Gotcha. To clarify I have no BK's just the baddie from way back when and it should be falling off next year. Currently at 9 total inquiries on my EXP report; 5 from this year. While I was at 660 I went on an application spree, applied for the gold, and was denied so I'm thinking with maybe another month or two in the garden they might see that I'm not just trying to apply like crazy to see what I can grab.

[Anonymous]

Gardening won’t ever hurt you, but it isn’t always necessary. I cold-apped the Gold earlier in May and was declined. Monday I had a preapproval for it after having picked up BCP four days earlier, so I went for it and was approved. I wouldn’t sweat the inquiries - Amex doesn’t seem to be bothered by them.

Did you try again and look for the wording I mentioned?

[Anonymous]

Only thing I can think of is the denial starts a clock on when to next apply.  IIRC it's 90 days before the system will even process another app.

[Anonymous]

That’s what I had always thought (think it was 30 days though) but my BCP approval was less than 2 weeks after my Gold denial, and then I was approved for the Gold they denied me four days after that...

[MrCreditInternational]

I think it’s 30 days between apps for a specific card with amex

OP: I’d say go for it as long as more than 7 days have passed since your last amix application 

[Anonymous]

Just following up with this post here. I went on the website and applied yet unfortunately got declined (bummer). However, I’ve given it some more time (about a month since second app) and checked the pre-qualification link they have and am currently pre-qualified for the gold delta skymiles card! Gonna give it some more time before I reapply

[MrCreditInternational]

That's weird, especially with the scores in your signature.

Try calling them and ask why. Maybe they need to verify something?

[Anonymous]

UPDATE:

So after patiently waiting for three months after my initial HP I started to see that I was prequalified for the Amex gold delta. I waited a bit longer and sure enough the pre-qual page gave me an offer for the AMEX gold! It was 50k points after 1k spend within 3 months which is better than the standard 30k points after 2k spend. Little tid-bit I noticed this time after applying that sort of gives you a hint of approval is that AMEX will ask if you want to add other members to the card prior to finishing the app. I'm sure the HP was done prior, but if you've made it that far then you're Golden! Lastly, as far as card delivery goes it took 4 days to arrive...longest days of MY LIFE, but well worth the wait. Going into the garden for now!

FICO Scores: 710 EX 696 EQ 722 TU