Good morning all,
A bit of background first...
I finally have a completely clean EX and only 2 very old lates on TU (which will drop off in March 24)
Inquiries TU 6/12 1/6
EX 8/12 0/6
I have EQ frozen but there are only 3 inquiries and it's my worst score with a charge off that will drop off in April 2024..
New accounts only one account since Feb 2023 NFCU (Sept 1st 2023). I did open a few accounts back in Jan/Feb 2023 which should hit the year mark for age coming up.. Same goes for the inquiries hitting the 12 month mark (even though they will still show)
Any thought on what my scores will do based on the age increase? I would guess I will see a bit of a bump for the account age and lack of scorable inquiries correct? Current Fico 8's
Up to this point I never was able to get an approval for an Amex card due to the CO showing on EX and now that EX and TU are good
I tried a pre-approval for the BCP from Amex and was approved but I chose to not complete the application as I was more interested in the possibility... Though an Amex is certainly on my list and I do want one as I think it will open up some good future opportunities with them..
My ultimate question is... Should I simply go for it now or wait another month or 2 (till the inquiries stop scoring and the newest sccount hits 6 months)? Or would now be the best since newest account is still "new".
Also, did I perhaps hurt my chances by cancelling the approval or doesn't Amex care about the pre-approval side of things if one doesn't accept the card?
My apologies for the length of this one!!
I'm probably going to garden for the majority of 2024 (as it stands now)
@willmsbrg wrote:A bit of background first...
I finally have a completely clean EX and only 2 very old lates on TU (which will drop off in March 24)
because Amex can pull EX and TU for new customers, I would wait for March 24 when those lates fall off before applying, it's only three months and if 3 months means a completely clean TU as well, I think it would be worth waiting those three months, provided nothing else in your profile in terms of balances is planning to get worse
I forgot to mention balances...
My balances are roughly 2% aggregate (never carry any balances) and at most 3-4% on individual cards (always paid in full)... I do allow 1 or 2 cards to report each month just to show usage... So, no problem with that either now or coming up...
As stated, my reports will do nothing but improve in 2024, EQ being the longest one to clear up that CO in Apr.
But since, Amex pulls either TU and or EX those are looking great other than stated above..
While my finger is itchy 
As I do want into Amex... I was much more happy knowing I was approved even if I didn't pull the trigger (YET) 
I'm still researching they type of card I feel would benefit me most... Also, the possible 3x CLI's and possible soft pull additional products....
@willmsbrg wrote:Also, the possible 3x CLI's and possible soft pull additional products....
those rules may not apply if you apply "dirty" which is why I suggested waiting until TU was clean
if I was you, I would apply the day my TU is clean
I'm sure it would probably be fine to apply now because it's not exp that's dirty, but I wouldn't personally take the risk
You can get a head start by disputing the TU lates as being "Too old" they normally will delete them immediately especially being so close to the drop off date. Just a thought.
@willmsbrg wrote:Aah, okay... last thing I would want would be a possible bucketed Amex card (if that's a thing) with them...I want to go into Amex as clean as possible...
As for disputing with TU on those last lates, the account is paid in full and was not CO or sold..I simply paid off the account. Closed as paid on 6/2017, opened 11/2013... I could try for an EE as being too old on that.. The account will still report for several more years once those lates drop... Not sure if they would drop them or not.. I don't want to mess anything up with TU...
I disputed my bk7 through TU almost 2 years before it was scheduled to come off and it was deleted immediately but seeing you're only a few months away the choice is yours. Either way you wont be waiting very long.
I don't believe Amex does the traditional bucketed cards like CapOne, When I got back in with them (With the bk7 still showing) my first card was I believe $2k but quickly went up from there, subsequent cards were decent limits so i guess in a way it was bucketed but it didn't stay that way for long. (It's at $10k now)
@GZG wrote:
@willmsbrg wrote:Also, the possible 3x CLI's and possible soft pull additional products....
those rules may not apply if you apply "dirty" which is why I suggested waiting until TU was clean
if I was you, I would apply the day my TU is clean
I'm sure it would probably be fine to apply now because it's not exp that's dirty, but I wouldn't personally take the risk
This is accurate, was denied CLI on my delta reserve that had 4k SL because of an unpaid charge off from 2019/2020
