Amex Gold arrived

[Loquat]

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@Anonymous wrote:
First of all Congrats on the Amex Gold Card! Personally I think it's the best card on the market. Using the restaurant and airline credits covers the annual fee, and MR points collected using the card at restaurants/groceries is better than a 5% cash back card!! Its a great card, and since I have to pay the balance in full each month I have no high rate carry balances. This card replaces my debit card in my wallet.

Disclaimer, I have been an Amex customer for 26 years. What I can say is the first few years my spend power was really low. A couple tips, 1) don't check spend power more then 1x a month, checking it frequently can cause a red flag at Amex. 2) use the card for everything you can, and payoff the balance right away (like every 2-3 days for first six months). I'm sorry, this is absolutely not neccessary.  OP, if you want to do this, sure, go for it, but doing this for 6 months can be timinng consuming and probably won't yield any different result that using your card responsibly and paying when the bill is due.  

It will help build your credit with Amex, and after 6 months should boost your spend power!   Again, using your card responsibly will achieve the same history with Amex and even so, may not have any bearing on your ability to spend more.  Your known income to Amex, your credit score, etc plays a lot into what you can spend.  Many folks chime in on this here forum saying that Amex reduced or implemented a hard limit on their NPSL card due to changes in their credit report and often those changes didn't even involve and Amex card.

At the end of the day, amex wants you to build a strong use and repayment history so they can see you are responsible and can easily repay. The worst thing you can do with amex is not pay the bill on time, so for the first 6-12 months pay the bill early, like before the billing drops.  Like I mentioned above, paying early is a choice and certainly not a requirement.  Doing so probably won't give you anything more than paying your bill when it's due will.  As for building a "relationship" and paying your bill on time, heck, every lender wants you to spend more with them and pay your bill on time...that's a given...it's not an Amex thing it's an every lender thing.

I have done this for the past 26 years. Let's just say my spend power today is really high (like as much as all my other credit limits combined).

Good Luck, and enjoy the card!

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[Anonymous]

Stop doing that unless you want financial reviews.

[FinStar]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Stop doing that unless you want financial reviews.

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Is there any direct evidence that such patterns actually triggers one?  For as long as I've been an AmEx customer (20+ years) they've never blinked an eye whether a variety of payments were made early on or when balances cycled naturally.  I have yet to see anyone reporting a FR was triggered because of mutliple or early driven payments on their AmEX cards that were not correlated to transactions or activity exceeding reported income during any given cycle.

[Anonymous]

Stop doing what????

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

@FinStar I think he was talking about checking the spending limit.

[simplynoir]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Stop doing what????

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Nothing. Like @FinStar said AMEX doesn't care about the amount of payment sources or how often you pay. I will say that someone juggling that many there is an increased likelihood that drawing a payment from an account with insufficient funds will change that in a hurry and that goes with ANY financial institution.

[simplynoir]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

@FinStar I think he was talking about checking the spending limit.

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Didn't Pooka mention that is not the case. I'll try to find the post in question.

[simplynoir]

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

@FinStar I think he was talking about checking the spending limit.

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Didn't Pooka mention that is not the case. I'll try to find the post in question.

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Update: found it.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Amex-The-Check-Spending-Power-tool/m-p/5480016#M161800...

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

@FinStar I think he was talking about checking the spending limit.

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Didn't Pooka mention that is not the case. I'll try to find the post in question.

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Update: found it.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Amex-The-Check-Spending-Power-tool/m-p/5480016#M161800...

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It's kind of a yes and no. It shouldn't trigger a FR, but it brings your account to their attention.

[simplynoir]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@simplynoir wrote:

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

@FinStar I think he was talking about checking the spending limit.

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Didn't Pooka mention that is not the case. I'll try to find the post in question.

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Update: found it.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Amex-The-Check-Spending-Power-tool/m-p/5480016#M161800...

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It's kind of a yes and no. It shouldn't trigger a FR, but it brings your account to their attention.

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I think this is something AMEX needs to adjust in the future. Personally, the spending ability doesn't need to go away but having something like a dynamic spending limit show how much you can spend on the card at any time needs to somehow be implemented.