What does it take to get an (ANY) AmEx?

[dytch2220]

---

@SouthJamaica wrote:

---

@dytch2220 wrote:
One of my original goals when I joined here in 2010 was to acquire an AmEx card, a ZYNC at the time. I know that card is now grandfathered but I'd still like to put that goal on the back end of my list.

So, what does it take to get approved?
Average score?
Do I need to eliminate all derogs?
Are there any other things I need to do so I can all but assure approval?

---

You need to get up to the high 600's in your FICO 8.

You probably don't need to eliminate all derog's, but do need to eliminate enough of them to get your scores up.

There's no such thing as "assuring" approval.

---

Yeah, I've gathered that approval is not assured since even secured credit cards can be declined..  I tried to leave wiggle room by saying "all but assured", however, point taken.

Impressive garden, may be picking your brain along the way to learn how you got there after I take care of the basics like paying off debt.

[calyx]

During my build/rebuild, I entertained myself by checking prequals (without actually applying).   I started seeing prequals for the AMEX Delta cards about the time I hit the mid 600s (on EX... well, on all of them).  At that time, I had major derogs, but they were all paid/had $0 balances reporting.

I pulled the trigger on my AMEX in May @ ~710EX, which was earlier than I planned (the SUB was too good) - I still had old derogs, but I had preapprovals for three core cards, and they gave me limits (ie: "you are preapproved for up to 5k" or whatever) for the revolvers.   So yes, you can get in well before you are squeaky clean, but you'll need to clean up your file a bit first.