AX is now doing HPs for some existing account holders

[bourgogne]

just had it happen with 2 friends that both have existing amex accounts.  that kind of sucks.  also got them both nfcu cards and no hard pulls.  what is the world coming to lol

[lucky70]

Isn’t that illegal without your permission? Thought they could do soft pulls because you have account with them?

[bourgogne]

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@lucky70 wrote:
Isn’t that illegal without your permission? Thought they could do soft pulls because you have account with them?

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its an app, when you hit the return key you are giving them permission to hp you if they want.  was just nice that they did not in the past.  hopefully they just did not like these 2 profiles and its not a policy change

[Anonymous]

Approved 2 days ago for the Gold charge with a SP so perhaps not a policy change. I have 2 existing revolver accounts about 1 year old.

[NRB525]

I was approved for the Platinum card on a new app a few weeks ago, no HP.

It has been a regular situation that AMEX would HP if the profile is marginal.

[bourgogne]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Approved 2 days ago for the Gold charge with a SP so perhaps not a policy change. I have 2 existing revolver accounts about 1 year old.

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I am sure its not a policy change.  then again I never heard about ax clds until a few days ago.  welcome to credit

[Anonymous]

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@bourgogne wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Approved 2 days ago for the Gold charge with a SP so perhaps not a policy change. I have 2 existing revolver accounts about 1 year old.

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I am sure its not a policy change.  then again I never heard about ax clds until a few days ago.  welcome to credit

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Since these "policies" aren't documented, they can be ignored for a particular user at any time!   Recall that the current (prior to these messages) state, no HP for existing members, replaced the older one; sp for decline, hp for accept, fairly recently (last three years?).   And even that was considered a big plus, compared to other issuers more normal, hp for decline, hp for accept!

[Shadowfactor]

I think there’s a misconception about it being a “policy” that Amex will only SP existing members.
That’s never been an official rule as far as I know.

Amex can HP at any time during a new credit application.

It was just a courtesy extended to existing members that they did SP’s as they were getting copies of the credit report on a regular basis.

[bourgogne]

not a misconception on my part, I app for a lot of friends + myself, way over 40 apps in the past few years and have never had a hp for an existing account.  just a psa/fyi post

[kdm31091]

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@lucky70 wrote:
Isn’t that illegal without your permission? Thought they could do soft pulls because you have account with them?

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Nothing illegal about it. You are applying for a new card. Of course they have the right to hard pull.

In fact, I think technically your existing creditors have the right to hard pull. Taken from a site that lists "permissible purposes" for pulling credit: "when you apply for credit, or when a creditor is reviewing or taking collection action on your existing account".

In practice, they are free to code it as a soft pull and normally do, but that's more for existing account reviews. For new apps, Amex or not, I would always expect a HP and just be glad if it turns out otherwise, as it had been for some with Amex for the past couple years.

Realistically, the HP isn't a big deal anyway. Banks are more concerned with new accounts being opened than they are with the actual inquiries IME.