Who needs AMEX anyways, not this blacklisted ex customer

[FinStar]

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@ChessChik47 wrote:

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@Ricky_D wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

For those that got back in with Amex, consider yourself lucky. I got denied today for my old charge off account from 2008. I applied since I was getting pre-quals off the business and personal websites, thought I was in the good graces with Amex, nope. Oh well so far Ive been approved by 4 CC and 1 personal loan, 2 of those CCs I also burned but they let me back in. So who really needs an Amex 😊

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FenderGuy, AmEx will take you back. I was in the same boat as you. I found out after waiting 18 years, I only had to wait 12 with them.

As I posted elsewhere, when they take you back (and they will), your original "Member Since" will still be acknowledged. AND, when you talk to CSRs, they will thank you for being a long time member.

I think you applied too soon. I suggest wait until the last quarter of this year, or the beginning of next year for sure.

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The original "member since" isn't guaranteed...I had a charge card with them in 1993 and closed it a few years later.  I came back to AMEX in 2017 and the date is "member since 2017".  I read somewhere on the forums that they stopped backdating (the history and the member since dates).  Maybe it's YMMV...

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You should be able to have the Member Since display on your most recently acquired AmEx CCs.   There's a back office department that handles that.  It might take a couple phone calls or possibly escalate to a supervisor, but it can be done unless a system glitch or restriction may prevent such an update.   It's purely cosmetic, of course.

As far as 'backdating' history on the CRAs, that stopped in the early part of 2015. 

[FinStar]

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@PointsBonus wrote:

Have u tried for the Green Charge Card ? That is normally how you get back in the door....

just food for thought.

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When an individual is blacklisted, even going for the basic charge card, such as the Green Card, won't work either - pre-approved or otherwise.  It won't circumvent their internal db. 

[Anonymous]

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@pizza1 wrote:
Have you tried paying them back? Look at it from a business perspective....flip the table and put yourself in their shoes. Let's say you lent a large amount of money to someone with the promise of them "paying you back", and you believed them and took a chance, and they never did.

Later down the road, they didn't pay you back, and you had to eat that. All of sudden, same person comes to you again asking for money.....would you lend to them again so soon?? um yeah, didn't think so.

Amex is awesome if you pay them back. All you have to do is call them up and tell them you want to pay back your old debt to them, and once thats complete, the doors will open better

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Crash of 2008 Many banks took a dive on greed vs consumers just being effed on losing jobs, bad choices.... If you wanna play that op https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list Seems your High Horse Amex is on the list that needed bailout money from the Taxpayers to make more profit....Dont need them, dont care as my future doesnt relay on Amex to make my paypments...Wells Fargo and Discover gave me another chance and that all that matters now...

[DaveInAZ]

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@Anonymous wrote:

This is interesting...I applied for and was approved for a green Amex freshman year of college (1992). Despite my parents urging, I decided that I didnt want a revolving charge card and cut it up and had them close account. I wonder if I called that they would still have that in the system and would be a member back to then? I might just call...

Thanks!

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Yes, I'd be willing to bet they will. I had a similar experience, but I'm a tad older than you. When I was in college in 1978 I got a mailer w/pre-approval for a gold card and though "Oh, cool!" and got it. Well, while on campus I didn't use it much, under $100 or so a month, and then . . . Spring Break! I used it for gas & hotels and had it up to around $500 and tried to make a $50 purchase. Back then they used this little black thing with a round dial to call to get approval, and the clerk calls me over and says "they want to talk to you". Amex demands to know why "I'm spending so much". I tell her I'm on spring break and traveling "Remember? Don't leave home without it?" I tell her sarcastically. She icily tells me she'll approve the purchase, but I can't use the card again until I pay the balance in full. I tell not to bother approving the purchase, I'll put it on my Visa with $3000 limit. When I got back home I called and canceled the card, and avoided Amex for almost 40 years, my attitude was why get a stupid card that you have no idea what your limit is and you have to explain yourself if they think you're "spending too much"?

But in 2017 I had a pre-approval for a BCE with nice SUB and got it. When the card arrived sure enough it says "Member since 1978". This May I took the nice SUB offer to upgrade to BCP and recently used Chat to ask when the changeover date was to track my spend for the SUB, and the rep congratulated me on being a "Member since 1978". OK, if you think so . . .

But I will never again get one of their charge cards with no pre-set limit, I have a long memory as well  . . .

[Anonymous]

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@DaveInAZ wrote:

Amex demands to know why "I'm spending so much". I tell her I'm on spring break and traveling "Remember? Don't leave home without it?" I tell her sarcastically. She icily tells me she'll approve the purchase, but I can't use the card again until I pay the balance in full. I tell not to bother approving the purchase, I'll put it on my Visa with $3000 limit. 

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Hahaha, I wish I was listening in on that phone call.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

For those that got back in with Amex, consider yourself lucky. I got denied today for my old charge off account from 2008. I applied since I was getting pre-quals off the business and personal websites, thought I was in the good graces with Amex, nope. Oh well so far Ive been approved by 4 CC and 1 personal loan, 2 of those CCs I also burned but they let me back in. So who really needs an Amex 😊

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Yes, true, nobody "needs" an AMEX card. No more than they "need" any one particular card. I felt a similar way as you for many years about AMEX. I had 4 or 5 cards and loans with them like 20 years ago, and then I had finaical trouble and ended up having to close them all...etc. I got them paid back eventually many years ago though. However, I couldn't back in with them for a long time.. Then 7 months ago got approved for their Gold Card and their Cash Magnet card in the same week. And now just a couple of weeks ago I got approved for their Platinum Card, and their Bonvoy Brillant card.  Did I "need" an AMEX card ? No, certainly not. I already had two cards with Captial One, and got approved for another one, then I also got approved for two Bank of America cards, a Fidelity card... If I didn't get back with AMEX I would have been disappointement, but not for long.  But it has sure been nice getting back with AMEX because of the sense of accomplishment of rebuiling, and repairing old wounds, as well as knowing I am in with a respected lender.

Right now, for me, CHASE is one lender that I had issue with in the past, and I basically had one CHASE security rep tell me flat out that they no longer wanted my business in the future. The matter was over something that was incurate and I was falsely/mistakely seen as not handling a account ethically/properly, which was not true. But none the less I was flagged in their internal system. Even after that though, I got approved to open a deposit account, and then like a week later they closed it because of something in their system that didn't flag the application from being approved in the first place.... Anyway, long story short, I have never applied for anything with Chase since then. And probably never will. That rep may have been over-the-top at that time, and who knows, maybe like with AMEX, I could get back in since so much time has past, but I figure, why bother ?  I am veery happy with the line of cards I have. I and don't feel any buring desire to be a CHASE customer... I have no need for them, and they are doing just fine without my business too - to say the least..lol.

Thus, I kind of can relate to where you are coming from...

[Anonymous]

Congrats on moving on!

[Loquat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@pizza1 wrote:
Have you tried paying them back? Look at it from a business perspective....flip the table and put yourself in their shoes. Let's say you lent a large amount of money to someone with the promise of them "paying you back", and you believed them and took a chance, and they never did.

Later down the road, they didn't pay you back, and you had to eat that. All of sudden, same person comes to you again asking for money.....would you lend to them again so soon?? um yeah, didn't think so.

Amex is awesome if you pay them back. All you have to do is call them up and tell them you want to pay back your old debt to them, and once thats complete, the doors will open better

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Crash of 2008 Many banks took a dive on greed vs consumers just being effed on losing jobs, bad choices.... If you wanna play that op https://projects.propublica.org/bailout/list Seems your High Horse Amex is on the list that needed bailout money from the Taxpayers to make more profit....Dont need them, dont care as my future doesnt relay on Amex to make my paypments...Wells Fargo and Discover gave me another chance and that all that matters now...

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@Anonymous I understand the view of the bank not wanting to lend to a previous customer who burned them in the past...but I also very much agree with you that a lot of these lenders and businesses, not just Amex, are without "clean hands" either.  Just like consumers file bankruptcy so does businesses...and banks get bail out.  

But as we all know he who has the money usually makes the rules.  So they won't let you back in now...oh well...like you mentioned, there are others out there who have and will.  I'm in the same situation as you but in my situation the lender is Barclays bank.  I included them in my BK13 and they don't want anything to do with me and I'm okay with that.  However there is one thing I can say with a degree of certainty is that I will NEVER pay back debt that has been discharged under Federal Law and if that is the only way they'll throw a glance my way then they can kick rocks because it will never happen. 

There's life after Amex and most of what they offer can be had elsewhere.  Maybe not the same subs or the exact list of transfer partners but if you're in a Citi/Chase/Amex/Wells Fargo ecosystem you can find an award flight or a hotel stay.  They'll all get you from point A to point B...they just take different routes to get there.  

[Anonymous]

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@FinStar wrote:

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You should be able to have the Member Since display on your most recently acquired AmEx CCs.   There's a back office department that handles that.  It might take a couple phone calls or possibly escalate to a supervisor, but it can be done unless a system glitch or restriction may prevent such an update.   It's purely cosmetic, of course.

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I had a Canadian Amex card in 2015 that I cancelled when the sign-up bonus period was over. When I got back into Amex in 2017 my card said Member since 2017 and I thought nothing of it.

But when I got my first US Amex card last year, it said since 2015.

[Anonymous]

I had a collection with AMEX back around 3 years ago finally settled it out with them when I had time to go all in with one payment so I did $790 out of $1,100 owed they applied it to the account and put settled for less on my report. At the time AMEX offered me some sort of credit card for bad credit I forget the name of it actually but it's not listed on there website so I told them no thank you. Fast forward now 2019 I just got approved lately for a Delta Gold card with a $1000 CL now that my credit score has gone back up to a somewhat healthier level.