Common question cleared up in The Definitive Amex 3X CLI Guide
When does an acccount become eligible for CLI?
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Amex does NOT increase an account's credit limit during the first 60 days after it has been OPENED, or for at least 6 months from the last credit limit increase. The key word here is OPENED aka the account creation date. There are a few ways to find out the exact date the account was opened.
a) Call the number on the back of the card and simply ask the friendly customer service rep. There is nothing to be worried about here or get nervous. You are not asking for a CLI to the rep, but simply the day the account was opened. This can be done during card activation itself or any point later. Some friendly CSRs will also calculate and mention the first eligible date for CLI (61st day since account opening). If they are not aware of the first eligible date, simply ask for account opening/creation date and calculate it yourself.
b) "Date Opened" field on your Equifax or TransUnion credit report. Both EQ and TU report the account opened day and month accurately (Equifax started doing this recently). 3rd party credit pullers may or maynot pull the date opened field accurately, the official credit reports are the only reliable source. It is important to note that the year field in "Date Opened" is affected by your American Express Member Since date, so may not reflect the year the card was originally opened. The only downside is one has to wait for the card to report to EQ and TU first, but Amex is usually very prompt to report.
c) Before the first statement has been cut, the account opened date is reflected under the Recent Charges field next to the "Since". Example in this pic, the account opened date is Jan 08. The "Since" field changes every statement period as it starts tracking the spending for that statement, so it is a good idea to get the account open date information using this method as early as possible. Existing Amex card members with an online profile are at an advantage to use this method because any new approved cards show in the profile before the card has been delivered physically, displaying several key account details like the account open date, first statement closing date, last 5 digits of card etc. First time Amex card members should try to setup the online profile as early as possible after physically receiving the card(s) to take advantage of this method as the first statement can sometimes close very soon after receiving the card(s).
