Hello!
I've been working pretty hard on my credit the last 6 months as well as education my girlfriend on
everything I've read in the forumns. In March she applied for a AMEX BCE card and was approved
for 4K and added me as an authroized user. I wanted to pull the trigger on the 61 day rule but was
being very strategic on timing. Paying down her USAA card and other things to maximize her score.
Of course, I had to educate her that it was just a soft pull for CLI and payment/spending behaviors
also mattered. The first month, I PIF and reported a $92 dollar balance on the second month, PIF
every month after that. Most of the montly charges were between $1200-$1500 but I always made
multiple payment or payed it all in full before the statement cut. Being a little concervative I decided
to wait 105 days instead for requesting the CLI. On Saturday, we went online and requested $12,000
which was 3X from the original $4,000. It was immediately approved and was available in 15 minutes.
No HP, nothing crazy. For her (since she has other cards) her UTIL will go from 22% to a single digit
while mine will go from 43% to 27%. The next steps are also strategic. I have been with NFCU since
2017 but have never applied for any of their products outside of checking and saving. I put a lot into
savings there. I went to the prequal tool and it said I was prequalified but I am holding steady as I am
waiting for 2 baddies to finally come off. The key to all this is patience! Anyways, I thought it worked
out well with AMEX specially during these difficult times. I am not sure if this strategy will work but I
made every payment to AMEX from my bank account hoping one day I'll get an offer. I'll keep everyone
updated. Thanks for reading!
-AK
Congratulations on GF CLI!
Grats to her on the very nice 3x CLI 
The fact that you are an AU indicates you are not blocked by Amex from holding your own cards, not sure if it will make a difference if you pay from your bank account or not as far as an offer for your own card. I would try the prequal and see what comes up when you are ready.
I agree with you! I will most likely stay patient until the baddies come off before I even do
the prequalification. Thank you for the response!
Congrats!
Congratulations as well! I'll look forward to an update!
-AK
