Hey All;
I’ve been working hard at a rebuild for the last 2.5 years. Fairly quick version is I worked up from having a ex-HSBC Cap One With under $1000 limit for around 10 years and a Target with about the same... student loans had my scores down into the low 500’s. I finally was able to negotiate with them and get them paid off in 2016, and I decided it was time to fix my credit.
Discover gave me a chance with a secured It card I deposited $2500 to and PIF for a year, for which they gave me my deposit back, and I also got an Amazon Store Card and Walmart Card with 1k limit, increasing every 3 months to 7k each just because I asked — even though I would just charge little things and PIF.
This got my score up to 685 — and my partner and I were finally able to buy a house a year ago! I apped at Lumber Liquidators for some new flooring, using about 3k of the 7k Synchrony gave me and splitting the payments evenly for their no interest offer... I figured I’d try AmEx... again... to see what would happen and they gave me an approval for $500 on a BCE. I was just happy to be in, and they bumped it to 1k 6 months later where it’s been for the last 4 months...
So this brings me to today... didn’t touch the credit since the mortgage, and I knew opening the BCE along with a mortgage would make a hit... and it did... down to 605. I moved my daily spending to the BCE, making multiple payments every month and PIF by the statement cut date. But over the last 10 months it got back up to a 645. I hadn’t applied for anything else cause I just wanted to garden for a bit.
Well 3 nights ago I logged into AmEx’s website, and for the first time ever they said they had pre-approved special offers... the only one that popped up was the Platinum card as a special offer. I felt like that was really odd since the gold and green didn’t come up either, so I went to the card pages, and the Bonvoy Brilliant had a little banner that I was approved for their special 100k points special offer, as well as the Hilton.
Well... I couldn’t not at least try it... my credit card goal for years had been to get my hands on the SPG card because I always stay at Starwood properties, and I do travel a good bit... so I applied... they said to call in... so I called in, and they just wanted to confirm my address, and I got an approval! They UPS’d it to me the following day.
Now... it’s only $3400 — and it’s at 26% APR... but I PIF anyway, and figure I can negotiate down at a later time once my score is above 680. I have an expense coming up that I can take advantage of the 5k/90 offer for 100k points so the timing is great, and I had rooms to book soon as well. But I’m still trying to figure out how this is possible. Did they lower their standards? I was always under the impression that if you are under 680 don’t even bother applying. I’m assuming that maybe it is because Synchrony likes me and gave me 3 cards with 7k credit limits, 2 of which I hardly use and 1 that I pay down at a regular amount?
Anyways, I just had to share that I actually got one of these with a 645 credit score and AmEx promoted it to me... my partner wonders if it is because AmEX had to give up the “lower tier” Marriot card to Chase so now they only have the higher end Brilliant card so their requirements are a bit lower now? (They would never give me a regular SPG when it was offered either... I tried... many times. I was shocked when the BCE popped up on the pre approval page 10 months ago lol)
I realize it’s a marginal approval... but I’ll just keep doing what I was doing with the other ones, while making this my new main “everyday” and travel card that I pay down monthly and build my credit with AmEX... it feels really good like I’ve accomplished something lol
Now I’m content and will not be applying or touching anything for a good while
I’ve been working hard at a rebuild for the last 2.5 years. Fairly quick version is I worked up from having a ex-HSBC Cap One With under $1000 limit for around 10 years and a Target with about the same... student loans had my scores down into the low 500’s. I finally was able to negotiate with them and get them paid off in 2016, and I decided it was time to fix my credit.
Discover gave me a chance with a secured It card I deposited $2500 to and PIF for a year, for which they gave me my deposit back, and I also got an Amazon Store Card and Walmart Card with 1k limit, increasing every 3 months to 7k each just because I asked — even though I would just charge little things and PIF.
This got my score up to 685 — and my partner and I were finally able to buy a house a year ago! I apped at Lumber Liquidators for some new flooring, using about 3k of the 7k Synchrony gave me and splitting the payments evenly for their no interest offer... I figured I’d try AmEx... again... to see what would happen and they gave me an approval for $500 on a BCE. I was just happy to be in, and they bumped it to 1k 6 months later where it’s been for the last 4 months...
So this brings me to today... didn’t touch the credit since the mortgage, and I knew opening the BCE along with a mortgage would make a hit... and it did... down to 605. I moved my daily spending to the BCE, making multiple payments every month and PIF by the statement cut date. But over the last 10 months it got back up to a 645. I hadn’t applied for anything else cause I just wanted to garden for a bit.
Well 3 nights ago I logged into AmEx’s website, and for the first time ever they said they had pre-approved special offers... the only one that popped up was the Platinum card as a special offer. I felt like that was really odd since the gold and green didn’t come up either, so I went to the card pages, and the Bonvoy Brilliant had a little banner that I was approved for their special 100k points special offer, as well as the Hilton.
Well... I couldn’t not at least try it... my credit card goal for years had been to get my hands on the SPG card because I always stay at Starwood properties, and I do travel a good bit... so I applied... they said to call in... so I called in, and they just wanted to confirm my address, and I got an approval! They UPS’d it to me the following day.
Now... it’s only $3400 — and it’s at 26% APR... but I PIF anyway, and figure I can negotiate down at a later time once my score is above 680. I have an expense coming up that I can take advantage of the 5k/90 offer for 100k points so the timing is great, and I had rooms to book soon as well. But I’m still trying to figure out how this is possible. Did they lower their standards? I was always under the impression that if you are under 680 don’t even bother applying. I’m assuming that maybe it is because Synchrony likes me and gave me 3 cards with 7k credit limits, 2 of which I hardly use and 1 that I pay down at a regular amount?
Anyways, I just had to share that I actually got one of these with a 645 credit score and AmEx promoted it to me... my partner wonders if it is because AmEX had to give up the “lower tier” Marriot card to Chase so now they only have the higher end Brilliant card so their requirements are a bit lower now? (They would never give me a regular SPG when it was offered either... I tried... many times. I was shocked when the BCE popped up on the pre approval page 10 months ago lol)
I realize it’s a marginal approval... but I’ll just keep doing what I was doing with the other ones, while making this my new main “everyday” and travel card that I pay down monthly and build my credit with AmEX... it feels really good like I’ve accomplished something lol
Now I’m content and will not be applying or touching anything for a good while
YOU...
CONGRATS on your 2nd AmEx Approval and the Very Nice SL!!!
Congrats!
I missed out on the SPG as well. Would love to get the bonvoy as I have a trip next month, but was thinking I might have to settle for a Hilton, which is a bummer because we stay at Marriott properties.
First off lets start by saying that it is always great when a lender has said yes to our requests.
In the case of your approval I am going to go ahead and say you probably have a BK still showing on your report, yes? That basically puts you in a diffrent calculation ladder completely. While normal people would need 680 or so people with a BK generally have lower skewed scores. To compensate all lenders actually give you a boost when they do the math assuming the lender does not run for the hills just by seeing the BK first. Next as you noticed the terms that you got for your card leave much to be desired this is intentional. Lastly when you are paying a lender $450 per year that really becomes your "credit criteria" so they can be a little more loose on the other requirements like a high Fico score. In the case of the SPG you might have still been too close to the BK date to be considered or the score was too low for even the worst offer. You must remember that while your score might recover the BK will effect you for 10 years at all BK unfriendly lenders and for the rest of your life at ones that you burned.
Congrats on your approval !!!!!
My apologies, I guess that is the side effect of assuming. When you rebuild generally people have very damaging things that they are recovering from like a BK. Your actions are more like actively gardening. Those private student loans are always the ones that get people since they have no federal protections.
Based on all the negative info on the report I can safely understand why your score is what it is. While you can disregard the BK info reasoning it still stands that you are dropping $450 and that is a lot of money for a small rectangle.