Help with mom's AMEX, plus other stuff.

[willwar14]

 So first id like to thank everyone here for all their help and advice. So back in 2011 my parents (and me) had our identity stolen by a family member, so as a result we didn't file a police report, on top of that he got into their bank account and filed fake check advance forums (their credit union had something along the lines of that), and they applied for a **bleep** ton of stuff, so they ran up a bunch of balances and I think the biggest one was Bill Me Later for 8k on my dad, but that never showed up on his report and we havn't heard anything from them in a year. And at the time I was 14 years old so everywhere they applied under my name was denied except first premier which thank god they realized I wasn't 18 and closed it.

So back on topic, as a result of their credit rep going down the drain their card they had with their credit union was closed and every creditor except amex closed accounts (luckly they never got a chance to touch my moms amex, but amex did decrease the limit from 5k to 1k). So here we are 4 years later and my parents are trying to clean their reports and my mom's experian report it almost clean except for the charge off that was with their credit union (it was the checking account that  had the advance forms filed then money drained, its like 3k) thats the only negative thing on there. Its been paid (my mom had her wages garnished but it shows as a charge off idk))

So I know amex only pulls EX and my mom has since been given 1k increases to 3k on her amex but been denied every time when she requested an increase, and she hasnt requested one over the past year, and she recently paid it off. her EX fico score is 666 (I mainly think because her balance last month was 2.95k/3k) so once they report the new balance it should go up a lot. So with my mom's report almost clean do you think they would approve a 3k CLI to 9k? and who else only pulls EX (because TU and EQ won't remove anything) because my mom wants to get one or 2 more cards in hopes of being able to get a decent enough score to get an equity line of credit for the house, I was also curious as to who only pulls EX for that also. Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you to everyone who helps imput info.

[willwar14]

anyone?

[Anonymous]

I have no personal experience on the matter.  If it were me I would work backwards. It sounds like the ultimate goal is the equity line of credit, for home improvements?  You dont have to include it here, but I would consider how much the house is worth, how much is owed on it, and what the mortgage apr is. You may be better off going to a credit union that has really low rates and just refi the whole thing? 

Are you sure you have fully exhausted all means of getting reports cleaned up? What do your fathers reports look like?

I would add to this thread their 3 fico scores, AAOA, number of inquiries, and utilization to get a better picture here.

You came to the right place but the situation can get really tricky especially if you are trying to get a home loan in the next year.

Make sure both parents NEVER use debit cards unless absolutely neccessary. If dad has no credit cards, get him an AU from moms. Use them like debit cards and pay off weekly if you have to.

Amex is tightening up the reigns for 3xcli, expecially with her scores being sub 700, but if her history with them is long and her payment history is spotless they should work with her.

As for you OP I would get on amazon non visa card payment page, click chat, and request a CLI of 25k and let them counter.

This thread may need to be split up or moved to a more appropriate section too.

You could google credit pulls database, and select your state and see what trend is for different lendors that exclusively pull EX.