Considering Amex Gold, looking for advice

[Anonymous]

I'm very green when it comes to building credit, and up until recently I didn't really view it as a viable option due to previous financial difficulties. A change of job as well as a bump in salary has changed a lot of that and now I'm interested in improving my scores.

Last year we bought a house and when I asked our mortgage broker if she had any tips to start raising our scores she immediately suggested a CC. I applied for a WM CC and got approved with a low SL. It's now $3500 and I should be eligible for my CLI in early July. Fingers Crossed I can get a good one prior to Cap1 takeover.

Last year for Christmas we took advantage of the 12 months no interest reward offer and got hit due to UTIL %, that plus 1 hard pull to switch auto loans to a lower % and a short term CU loan to help hold us over during the financial shutdown led to a 40 point drop in credit score. The short term loan has been completely paid off, interest free, and I've seen about a 20 point recovery thanks to getting a Lowe's Card and requesting an immediate CLI which is now at $12k. UTIL is back down to 3%, and according to the AMEX pre quality tool I'm good to apply for a Gold Card.

Fako TU 702 Equifax 704
F8 TU 687

The Lowe's card is about a month old, and have had the WM card for just over a year now.

Age of credit history is 2 yrs 6 mos, 3 hard Inq, 15 total accounts, no derogs.

I do have some now closed accounts that show serious delinquency, which if they fall of at 7 years are probably getting close to disappearing.

Given my situation is there a better use of a hard inquiry then the Amex Gold, or is it a good idea at this time? I like the perks and will be using the airline incidental benefits very quickly, plus think the $2k in three months will be easy for us.

Also any tips on getting the 50k membership awards for sign on, been trying the incognito with no luck, but have a friend link that is showing 40k MR for sign on?

Thanks for any and all advice.

[Anonymous]

First off you need your FICO scores and you can go to Experian and get them for $1 for all 3.  The reason for this is 2 fold... VS don't count towards anything and Amex specifically uses Experian for approvals.

Then we need to know if it's actually a good fit and the reasons you want to go w/ a Charge card that doesn't factor into your UTIL.

The incognito mode does work for 50K.... just have to keep trying until it shows up.

[Anonymous]

The gold card is pretty solid for the average person. Everybody’s got to eat, so as long as you have a good landing spot for the points (i.e. not their travel portal or pay with points), most will do pretty well with it.

Whether it’s worth it to you specifically is tough, because I have no idea what your spending habits are. If you’re asking whether you’d be approved, I would guess so. Since it’s a charge card and they can keep the leash pretty tight, it’s not that hard of a card to get. But it might depend on what those serious delinquencies are. 

[Anonymous]

Scores from Experian

Experian 664
Equifax 698
TransUnion 679

The reason I was thinking a charge card is a good idea is I don't really need a credit card so thought why not a charge card that has good rewards. My available credit at this time is $15,500. If it's better to try and grow the available credit amount with a new CC then I'll use the hard pull on something more appropriate.

It looks like my neg are on accounts that last reported on 12/2014 so I guess they will disappear in 2022.

Interesting note, my Experian report is missing a mortgage for a rental property we own. Is that the reason for the difference in scores?

[Anonymous]

I think recently Amex brought back the rose gold card for refer a friend, so they might be running a promo through that and discontinued the 50k offer. If you’re set on the gold card, wait a bit and see if the offer comes back.

As far as if the gold card is worth it, I would use the card match tool and see if you’re targeted for the 100k offer for the platinum card. If you see yourself using the Uber credits, the card is comparable to the gold card, and you get some added benefits.

I think you’re in a fine place to apply to any Amex card and to get approved. I wouldn’t worry about the hard inquiry. It’s temporary and barely impacts your score, just 2-3 points most of the time. I would also consider Chase cards as well due to 5/24.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

mortgage missing could be it's slightly lower.  You're still within the 30 point spread though.  

I would concentrate more on a CC than a Charge card to boost your ratio of balance/limit as it scores more points in the long run.

With your 15.K right now you would ideally only report $1550 each month using the 10% rule.  Bumping limits makes managing things a lot easier when you don't have to keep a close eye on things every day of the month to make sure you don't let a larger charge report and knock points off your scores.

When you're ready to hit up WM for the CLI just call 877-379-8175 and ask them for 25K and let them counter back.  If your TU score pops up a bit over 700 then you might likely end up w/ a 25K CL.  Either way it's best to aim high w/ Sync and let them counter.

Same thing w/ Lowe's but, ask for 35K and let them counter.  The reason I mention 25K/35K is that's where the cutoff is before you have to send them docs for income verification.  There was however one person that approved for lowes @ 4K and got 35K right away and then sent them docs to get it up to 50K all in the same week.

Depending on the age of the account you want to fall off there's a method called "early exclusion" you can use with the CB's to get them removed anywhere from 3-6 months early if you call them up and ask about it.

I would start here and then maybe we can come up w/ some ideas on what's a good option to apply for.  Ideally your scores should pop more w/ the CL increases and getting rid of the derog's early.  Maybe even 750+ scores are in your future.  Then we can really get serious about picking some gems to apply for.

[Anonymous]

If you think the Gold would come in useful for your spend, and be able to offset the AF. Then i'd say go ahead, it's very nice card to have in your wallet. If you're after something to help with utilization, or to help with a point boost. I don't think it's worth the HP or your trouble. You'd probably be better served with an AmEx revolver such as the EDP or BCP. Or perhaps the CSP, or something similar to it.

[Anonymous]

So I think my plan now is to stop in at Chase and ask if I prequalify for any cards, they have been my bank ever since they took over WaMu so hopefully that helps. Hoping for a CSP, but not sure I'll qualify.

If I can't get a Chase card I like I think I will hold off on the Amex and continue looking for a decent bank card that will help improve my credit.

Also as a hail mary I went ahead and disputed my old accounts, I doubt it will work but had to try.

[Anonymous]

Just got a message from Experian and it says that two of the accounts I disputed are coming off.... Woohooo.... I never thought it would happen, and I'm shocked at how quickly I got some good news. Hopefully this means the others are coming off as well. Excited to see the upcoming score changes.

[Anonymous]

Congrats on getting those off!!!

I agree with getting something that’s gonna help your utilization percentage.