Thanks for all your responses! I've been lurking for a while and not saying much, but I've learned a tremendous amount on these forums and I'll be forever thankful for the knowledge I have now.
An update that everyone (or at least the oasis crowd) might be interested in: when my credit took an ugly turn a couple of years ago was when I entrusted my partner at the time with our household finances and i found out shortly thereafter that none of our bills were being paid. In any case, as soon as I found out I scrambled to get everything up to date, but some things were too delinquent to be saved. I settled on some accounts, and Amex was one of them. I finally talked to someone who actually knew what Oasis was, and she said that I was no longer eligible since my account had been settled. I did pay the remainder of the delinquent balance though and I do plan on having a good relationship with amex in the future. I'll let you all know how it goes...
