AMEX prepaid card-any benefit?

[jsucool76]

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@LOC wrote:

It worked for me... i was approved for a Zync card NPSL after using a prepaid card for three months.

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I don't think that had to do with your pre-paid card at all, because I'm pretty sure it says on the website that they will start considering you for charge cards after 6 months of history with the prepaid card. 

[espnjunkie]

I would be very skeptical about the prospects of 'Make your move' program. There are no guarantees that it will lead to anything down the road. Your best bet to be approved for a charge card is to focus on building up your credit, minimizing inquiries, paying off all balances in full, etc. Any application will still be a hard pull so your credit must be in order regardless of prepaid card usage.

If you are denied for zync with no counter offer of 500.00 with autopay then there likely will be clear reasons given for why you were denied. BK, lates, public records, collections, burning Amex in the past, sub 650 FICO scores, etc. all will raise red flags. Working to correct these would be more beneficial than spending time with a prepaid card that won't build credit.

YMMV but focus on the tradelines you currently have open, pay them off in full, get any baddies taken care of to the best of your ability, and look to reapply in six months.

[Creditaddict]

The only thing that I will add to this program is yes Amex is not promising upgrade or even Approval of Charge application if you do it after 6 months but I think this option is WAY better or at least in spot 2 for choices of Secured Credit Cards (Now before you get all huffy that this is "Pre-Paid" not "Secured) lets look at what we know:

1.  Citi can't qualify for upgrade to unsecured for 18 months and will decline most of the time if ever bad with them in past

2.  USBank takes 12 months and then a Fico that they WILL pull to be at least 680

3.  Navy 12 months I believe probably great choise if it's option

4. Bank of America - That use to be pick 1 for all because of graduation at 9 months possible and once graduated slipping over to the CLI on SP and getting HUGE increases (I received oppisite and I was unsecured and CLI and then Closed 6 months later based on credit report that was 10 tiems better then when started and at over 15 months of history with them)

Pre-Paid - Suze Ormans card is simply working with EQ? to possibly get the ball rolling to have Pre-Paid, Cell Phones, Cable Bills, etc. used to build credit too but that's only 1 credit report and it's really not said in a very straight forward way and although her fees are very good you still can't avoid them all...

The new "Serve" Pre-Paid Amex and the Amex Pre-Paid Card both can be FREE if you use correct ATM's to withdraw and you load with checking account, etc. etc.

If I look at my choices above I would be running for the Amex and the "CHANCE" that later I can apply.... sometimes we underestimate that little computer that amex has tweeked in a way that baffles many of us each week, month, years that we have been on here chatting about what did work, didn't work, etc. and Im betting that they wouldn't have started this new Zync "Hard Limit Card", and "Hard Limit with Auto-Pay" if they didn't want to start slowly working with customers that normally would go to Capital One for a quick approval and then only find themselves angry in 1,2,10 years when they still have this $500 CL card sitting on credit report.

If Amex even breaths in my direection Im going to jump on and hold on until they give me another sign of what to do next!

In the end the only thing you would be loosing if they don't approve you in the future is maybe you would have shown more spending on a "Secured Card" because you wouldn't have been trying to show spending on this... I would risk it!

[trumpet-205]

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@LOC wrote:

It worked for me... i was approved for a Zync card NPSL after using a prepaid card for three months.

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ZYNC is pretty easy to approve. Your approval has nothing to do with prepaid card.

AMEX Prepaid card is prepaid card. You load your money into the account. You are not borrowing money from AMEX. No borrowing = no credit history.

[Duncanrr]

I just got off phone with AMEX.  The CSR stated that my usage of the card will impact evaluations for later AMEX products.  She suggested that I push $500 to $1000 through the card each month and "load" it with funds when it gets "low."  She said that even usage for 3 months would be beneficial in my later application but 6 months is the minimum you need for the "Make your Move" program. 

I discussed my situation with her and while she couldn't give me any hard numbers, she did definitely state that using this card would help my app for another product as long as I used it as she indicated above. 

Im already pushing 3k per month through my two secured cards.  I think using this for 1k per month and 1k each on my other secures isn't a bad deal.  This will at least help in RECON if I have to go that route and as a previous poster said, the inner workings of the AMEX app computer is a strange and mysterious device....no telling what helps with it

[Jlu]

I'd rather spend 6 months pushing $1000/mo through a Chase Freedom and getting back up to $300 in rewards while building my credit than push $1000/mo through a cash-cow for AMEX with the hopes they will ask me to make my move. Sounds like a gimmick to get you to use their no-frills prepaid card.

[Duncanrr]

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@Jlu wrote:

I'd rather spend 6 months pushing $1000/mo through a Chase Freedom and getting back up to $300 in rewards while building my credit than push $1000/mo through a cash-cow for AMEX with the hopes they will ask me to make my move. Sounds like a gimmick to get you to use their no-frills prepaid card.

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Im not sure if I qualify for Chase Freedom yet and do not have any reward cards.  I push extra 1k through Cap1 card and it will not mean a thing to them.  My WF might mean something but not sure.

[aussiesareforever]

I've had the Prepaid Amex for seven months now. Got it in January. Amex has not softed me ONCE on experian and I certainly haven''t gotten an invite to apply.

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't approve me anyways but I was just curious to see if they would soft me. I am still using the card since I have funds automatically deposited to it but I doubt that it will help increase your approval for a zync

[Duncanrr]

They don't have to soft pull ya to seehow you are using card as all records are kept internally. Aussie, how much do you deposit and use card per month?

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@aussiesareforever wrote:

I've had the Prepaid Amex for seven months now. Got it in January. Amex has not softed me ONCE on experian and I certainly haven''t gotten an invite to apply.

I'm pretty sure they wouldn't approve me anyways but I was just curious to see if they would soft me. I am still using the card since I have funds automatically deposited to it but I doubt that it will help increase your approval for a zync

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[LOC]

Good stuff people. Thanks for looking into it