Amex Gold approval odds

[Rex95]

I'm new to myFICO, so hopefully this is posted in the correct place. I'm considering applying for an Amex Gold, but wanted to get some input beforehand. I'm a  graduate student and I make $40k per year. I've had a Chase Freedom Unlimited for 5 years, a Barclays Apple Rewards card for 5 years, a Paypal Credit line for 3 years, an Amazon Store card which was closed by the creditor in 2016, and I'm an AU on someone's Chase Sapphire Preferred. Utilization is no more than 15% on any card. My only concern is that I have 5 late payments (all paid) that occurred after a lay-off at the end of 2015. 4 of them are 30 days (amazon store card) and one is 60 days (Barclays). They are all old since they occurred about 5 years ago. Zero negatives on my report since then. Experian is currently 739. What should my course of action be?

[rostrow416]

Check for a pre-approval on the Amex site, it's usually pretty accurate.  But based on the info you provided, it shouldn't be a problem getting approved.

[silver_idle]

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@Rex95 wrote:

I'm new to myFICO, so hopefully this is posted in the correct place. I'm considering applying for an Amex Gold, but wanted to get some input beforehand. I'm a  graduate student and I make $40k per year. I've had a Chase Freedom Unlimited for 5 years, a Barclays Apple Rewards card for 5 years, a Paypal Credit line for 3 years, an Amazon Store card which was closed by the creditor in 2016, and I'm an AU on someone's Chase Sapphire Preferred. Utilization is no more than 15% on any card. My only concern is that I have 5 late payments (all paid) that occurred after a lay-off at the end of 2015. 4 of them are 30 days (amazon store card) and one is 60 days (Barclays). They are all old since they occurred about 5 years ago. Zero negatives on my report since then. Experian is currently 739. What should my course of action be?

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I say you have a pretty strong chance of getting the Gold Card, but like another user stated you should give the prequal tool a shot. 

[K-in-Boston]

Welcome to the forums!  You should have very good odds of approval for the Amex Gold Card even if it doesn't show as preapproved.  The only caveat I would add here is that your "limit" on the No Preset Spending Limit may be held back until those late payments disappear in a couple more years, and they may impact any revolving limits if you later get non-charge Amex cards with late payments still present on your reports.

Just be sure to get the highest Welcome Offer you can for the card, as Amex SUBs are generally once in a lifetime per card product.

[Rex95]

Thanks for the input, everyone! This helps. I should've mentioned in my post that I did pre-qualify for the gold with 75k mile bonus, the green with the 60k bonus and the Blue Cash Prefetred with the $300 credit.

[silver_idle]

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@Rex95 wrote:

Thanks for the input, everyone! This helps. I should've mentioned in my post that I did pre-qualify for the gold with 75k mile bonus, the green with the 60k bonus and the Blue Cash Prefetred with the $300 credit.

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Then you should give it a go on one of those cards. While there is a chance you might qualify for any other cards from amex those are the offers that amex prequalify you for and give you a stronger chance of approval. Best of luck!