@Anonymouswrote:
Are you looking to avoid IV? If so, I think $35k will likely be your first pit stop en route to going higher. I would probably start at $50k (actually, that IS what I did exactly) and back it down $1k at a time until you get an instant approval. My guess is that it will be $35k.
Oh, I only want to avoid IV because it seems like a PITA. But I can certainly proove my income if it comes to that and I'm left with no options.
So you asked for 50K and backed out 15 times and ended up with 35K on your first trip to the 'over 35 club'? Should I maybe just ask for the 35K to start out or are you thinking some people manage to get over that without a IV?
@AsilomarOh, I only want to avoid IV because it seems like a PITA. But I can certainly proove my income if it comes to that and I'm left with no options.
So you asked for 50K and backed out 15 times and ended up with 35K on your first trip to the 'over 35 club'? Should I maybe just ask for the 35K to start out or are you thinking some people manage to get over that without a IV?
Actually, I believe I backed out 21 times on my first non-3X CLI attempt... I went down in $1k increments from $50k to $40k and then in $500 increments from $39.5k to $35k. I found it amusing about a week later to receive a rubber-banded stack of 21 denial letters in the mailbox from Amex. I wonder what the mail carrier was thinking? 
I think it all comes down to your profile in terms of what you can get. For one, your history with Amex. This was my first Amex card, so at the 8 month mark of history with them it's no surprise they wouldn't go higher than $35k. Also, while my EX score through them was about 730-735 at the time, I did have a dirty file with multiple major baddies. My income was around $75k. I think these are the biggest factors here. If your Amex history is greater than mine, your credit profile stronger and/or your income greater, I think your chances of exceeding $35k would be better. I'm always a big fan of "go big or go home," as I never want to question whether or not I left anything on the table. That's the reason I requested Discover CLIs every Monday for 9 months and why I asked for $35k on my Citi card that was given a $7300 SL when I took a HP to bump it up. If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly.
@brutalbodyshots did you get the 35k on the Citi? What card was it?
@Anonymouswrote:
@AsilomarOh, I only want to avoid IV because it seems like a PITA. But I can certainly proove my income if it comes to that and I'm left with no options.
So you asked for 50K and backed out 15 times and ended up with 35K on your first trip to the 'over 35 club'? Should I maybe just ask for the 35K to start out or are you thinking some people manage to get over that without a IV?
Actually, I believe I backed out 21 times on my first non-3X CLI attempt... I went down in $1k increments from $50k to $40k and then in $500 increments from $39.5k to $35k. I found it amusing about a week later to receive a rubber-banded stack of 21 denial letters in the mailbox from Amex. I wonder what the mail carrier was thinking?
I think it all comes down to your profile in terms of what you can get. For one, your history with Amex. This was my first Amex card, so at the 8 month mark of history with them it's no surprise they wouldn't go higher than $35k. Also, while my EX score through them was about 730-735 at the time, I did have a dirty file with multiple major baddies. My income was around $75k. I think these are the biggest factors here. If your Amex history is greater than mine, your credit profile stronger and/or your income greater, I think your chances of exceeding $35k would be better. I'm always a big fan of "go big or go home," as I never want to question whether or not I left anything on the table. That's the reason I requested Discover CLIs every Monday for 9 months and why I asked for $35k on my Citi card that was given a $7300 SL when I took a HP to bump it up. If you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly.
That's amazing! How did you even know to do that? That the CLI algorithm wouldn't shut you out after having denied you even once, let alone another 19 times??
Good thing Amex's letters don't actually say "From the American Express Credit Limit Increase Rejection Department" on them or else your mail carrier would seriously worry about what level of deadbeat he/she was dealing with. LOL
My current numbers aren't far off of where yours were. My profile is young since esentially rebooting it and I'll have only had the card (my only Amex product) just 15 months when I try to get over 35K. My current Ex is 730 and my yearly income fluctuates wildly due to the nature of the work I do (range: 73K - 180K). I do have some serious baddies (7 late payments) left from a closed auto loan that are dropping off now month by month but won't be totally gone until Dec 2019. So, no. My profile inn't stronger than yours. It seems quite similar, actually. In that way you make a good model for me.
I've been a little cowardly in the past with asking for what I wanted and I'll have to grow a grizzly-sized pair. Thanks for the pep talk and the valuable information as always! You're a peach, BBS!
@Anonymouswrote:
My 61 day is 3/16 for my BCE. The SL is $1000. What % utilization on the card at the time of asking for 3x gives me the best chance for approval?
I'm not one who can answer that but I can tell you my utilization was 1% at the time of my 3X CLI attempt. I used the card monthly and mostly paid in full but I think the month I hit the button there was like 70 bucks remaining on the balance.
@Anonymous
Gotcha. Good to know we have similar profiles! What was your SL BTW, I think I may have missed it? I think SL from Amex (any lender, really) is a good measuring stick for how they view you and it can be somewhat indicative of what you may expect going forward. I was happy to get a $10k SL from Amex. I think the main reason it was pretty good was because I had a pretty thick/aged file. I was at about 5-6 years AAoA at the time, 14-15 years AoOA and I had a good 12-15 accounts on my credit report. I did however have 4 dirty accounts on my credit report, 2 of which had major baddies (90/120) where the other 2 had minors (30/60).
My SL was 5,000 (that info for all my cards is in my siggy). Not nearly as good as yours -- which makes sense. You had/have a much thicker/older file that I did/do. When I app'd for the card last March my EX score was 652 and the baddie-presence was much worse than it is now: 3 charged-off collection accounts and the auto account had way more of those lates -- 17 to be precise! I don't recall exactly what my AAoA was then, but it was over 6 years. Now of course all the new tradelines have caused that metric to plummet to 2 years, 6 months. My AoOA was 15 years, but from an AU account so I'm not sure how the algo scores that one. Lastly, I only had 2 open tradelines (plus the AU account) at the time. So yeah, no surprise your SCL was double mine.
What's your current CL with Amex? 45K? And which card is it and how long have you had it?
Also, you didn't tell me how you figured out the 'browser back-button' method.