Amex The Check Spending Power tool

[ridgebackpilot]

I've had the AMEX Platinum card since last July. I had never used the "Check Spending" tool so last week I punched in a random number just out of curiosity.

Bam! Instantly approved to spend $35K on the card!

Needless to say, I didn't do that and was rather surprised that my random request was approved. I had been spending more than $5K per month on the card for a while, so perhaps that helped. Clearly, YMMV!

[NRB525]

What do your Platinum and Gold card statements show as your Pay Over Time limit? That should give an easy indication of how much would be approved.

Mine is $35,000 and from what I have read, that seems rather common. They would love to get 20% APR on $35k

[Anonymous]

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

From what I’ve read, FR will get triggered if you put in increasing amounts to try to find out what your max is

Pretty sure that is a myth, as are many others in the list of things that trigger an FR.   What would be the point of that logic? FRs cost time and money for Amex.

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The DPs that I have read that suggested it say otherwise, I don’t have personal experience with it. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=amex+check+spending+power+financial+review+site:ficoforums.myfico.com

[Remedios]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

From what I’ve read, FR will get triggered if you put in increasing amounts to try to find out what your max is

Pretty sure that is a myth, as are many others in the list of things that trigger an FR.   What would be the point of that logic? FRs cost time and money for Amex.

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The DPs that I have read that suggested it say otherwise, I don’t have personal experience with it. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=amex+check+spending+power+financial+review+site:ficoforums.myfico.com

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It's a myth. I think Pooka was summoned on a few occasions to shed some light on it. 

However, there has to be an expectation on their end that you're at least planning a purchase vs * Oh lookie, a button, I wonder what it does*

[UncleB]

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@Remedios wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@longtimelurker wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

From what I’ve read, FR will get triggered if you put in increasing amounts to try to find out what your max is

Pretty sure that is a myth, as are many others in the list of things that trigger an FR.   What would be the point of that logic? FRs cost time and money for Amex.

---

The DPs that I have read that suggested it say otherwise, I don’t have personal experience with it. 

https://www.google.com/search?q=amex+check+spending+power+financial+review+site:ficoforums.myfico.com

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It's a myth. I think Pooka was summoned on a few occasions to shed some light on it. 

However, there has to be an expectation on their end that you're at least planning a purchase vs * Oh lookie, a button, I wonder what it does*

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+1

Yeah, there is at least one video blogger spreading erroneous info about that. 

The folks here are quite familiar with how this works and generally give good advice on it.

[UncleB]

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@NRB525 wrote:
What do your Platinum and Gold card statements show as your Pay Over Time limit? That should give an easy indication of how much would be approved.

Mine is $35,000 and from what I have read, that seems rather common. They would love to get 20% APR on $35k

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Not always, unfortunately. 

My POT limit is also $35k, but when I check the 'link' for a $1k purchase I'm told they'll approve a purchase up to $4100, which is usually suitable for me (I don't use my Gold card that often).

From what I understand people who have added POT more recently have POT limits more in-line with what they could reasonably expect to use.

[Anonymous]

So I take it S***y is like the Voldemort of myFICO?

I did notice that there were multiple results that went there in my first Google search so I did a myFICO site search to remove them. 

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I take it S***y is like the Voldemort of myFICO?

I did notice that there were multiple results that went there in my first Google search so I did a myFICO site search to remove them. 

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I wouldn't say that... he's just really mistaken on some things.

[redpat]

It looks like they have you on a 5k limit.  

We don’t know your scores but that could be the problem.  They may want to see some payment history before increasing your charge limit.

As others have said, give them a call.

[Anonymous]

FWIW I applied for the Gold last month and used the spending power tool like 30 minutes after approval (didnt even receive the card yet). Entered 10k and it was approved. My POT limit however is only 3k. That was my first AMEX card.