Not sure what else gives... last THREE months I've ran heavy usage through my AMEX Gold Card (think $2k-$3k a month) and paid it off each month, having had the card for literally six months.
And to my detriment, AMEX still won't approve me for a revolver. I've been trying to get the Schwab Investor card... but I keep getting the same thing (FICO score, and collections from 6 years ago.)
I originally got a "your application is being processed and will receive a response within 14 days." But upon checking the application status online right after, the app shows up and is showing Declined. Looks that it's using a recent credit pull from back October 31st. But I just checked out my Experian report and seen they account reviewed yesterday (November 20th.)
BTW- Each app I've done I've placed 30-31 days in between to prevent from an auto-denial.
Has anyone else had any issues before? I know my EX8 probably isn't helping (currently at 643) but my UTIL is only 16% (as it stands, waiting for my DFS account to catch up here soon) and my CapOne $3k card to report which between those two should push my UTIL down to literally 7%. But even then, I'm losing faith that'll even help and may just sock drawer the Gold Card for the foreseeable future.
They want a pretty much clean report and scores near 700 before they'll approve you for a core card.
Just for clarity, have you only been with Amex for 6 months? Amex really likes to see some time.
2-3k is a decent amount but also you should keep in mind some crazy people (myself included) run 10k/month through Amex, not to downplay your spend but that may not be a huge amount to them.
Good news, your CO is going to be dropping off very soon! That's going to be awesome for you!
As to your util, although the % is down (great job), I would look to do AZEO. That should help as well!
Imo the Gold card is definitely not a sock drawer compared to the other cards you have. Stay patient, keep up the good work and you should be eligible soon. The revolvers are notoriously more difficult to qualify for.
@FinStar wrote:
@YoungMoney06 wrote:Not sure what else gives... last THREE months I've ran heavy usage through my AMEX Gold Card (think $2k-$3k a month) and paid it off each month, having had the card for literally six months.
And to my detriment, AMEX still won't approve me for a revolver. I've been trying to get the Schwab Investor card... but I keep getting the same thing (FICO score, and collections from 6 years ago.)
I originally got a "your application is being processed and will receive a response within 14 days." But upon checking the application status online right after, the app shows up and is showing Declined. Looks that it's using a recent credit pull from back October 31st. But I just checked out my Experian report and seen they account reviewed yesterday (November 20th.)
BTW- Each app I've done I've placed 30-31 days in between to prevent from an auto-denial.
Has anyone else had any issues before? I know my EX8 probably isn't helping (currently at 643) but my UTIL is only 16% (as it stands, waiting for my DFS account to catch up here soon) and my CapOne $3k card to report which between those two should push my UTIL down to literally 7%. But even then, I'm losing faith that'll even help and may just sock drawer the Gold Card for the foreseeable future.
Placing your Gold Card in the SD isn't really going to accomplish much if your goal is to eventually obtain the other card (or any AmEx revolver for that matter), honestly. This is almost like saying 'you don't want to play with me, fine I'll lock my toys in the basement'.
I think you're trying too hard. Your Gold Card is fairly young by AmEx [historical] standards and you're right, your scores may be on the lower end for that particular card. Until things improve with your overall EX score and the passage of time for the negative items, you're only going to spin your wheels. You definitely want to have things a bit more optimized, this way you don't get stuck with the $1K purgatory in the event that you get approved.
You mention 16% utilization. Is that across the board of for each card? Are any of your current cards over 20% utilization individually?
16% is the overall UTIL across all cards. On a per card basis, I have about 4 cards reporting over 20%, however, I paid down three of them down to 0%, 0%, 11%, respectively. Just waiting on the reports to catch up as they've closed in the last 2-3 weeks ago but the bureaus aren't reflecting yet.
that only leaves one card out of all my cards with a 22% utilization.
@difringe wrote:
@YoungMoney06 wrote:Has anyone else had any issues before? I know my EX8 probably isn't helping (currently at 643) but my UTIL is only 16% (as it stands, waiting for my DFS account to catch up here soon) and my CapOne $3k card to report which between those two should push my UTIL down to literally 7%. But even then, I'm losing faith that'll even help and may just sock drawer the Gold Card for the foreseeable future.
Just curious, if your UTIL is only 16% and your collections are from 6yrs ago, what negatives are keeping your EX8 at 643? That's the big limitation at this point; as noted in the thread, AMEX likes to see at least EX8 of 700. Do you have multiple collections, missed payments, etc.? Or is the 16% your current UTIL but on the Oct 31st report, it reported higher than that?
Considering you've only been with them for 6 months, and your collections are 6yrs old, you're probably better off just waiting for those to drop off.
I had four collections, but one actually ended up falling off all three reports in the last day or two. Unsure if it's cause of AAOA, but my FAKO scores were 680 across all three. The moment the collection dropped off they yanked 45 points! (head scratch)
My current utilization shows up 16% on my reports currently, but I paid off quite a chunk three weeks ago to where my utilization will be 7% overall once my reports refresh and the creditors report. Just waiting on the reports to update, even though it seems much slower to do so this month for some reason.
Thanks everyone for the feedback.
I keep seeing the 700 number thrown around, but I'm assuming that doesn't apply to AMEX charge cards? I got an AMEX Gold back in June when my score was around 650 (again, which doesn't make the drop anymore surprising because nothing has changed with my report between then and now, not even UTIL.)