Amex Zync questions

[Anonymous]

I just applied for Zync and got a counter offer from Amex, which I accepted with a $500 SL and automatic payment. I have 3 questions if anyone knows the answers.

1. Is this counter offer an approval for the lower limit, or are they still likely to decline outright?
2. If the counter offer is an approval of sorts, is the $500 limit permanent, or is there a likelihood that they will raise / remove it in the future?
3. If the counter offer is an approval of sorts, is this worth the hard enquiry?

I was a little surprised to get any kind of offer. I have two Cap1 cards with low limits (1 personal, 1 business but reporting on my personal report) which are a little over a year old with no lates and zero balances. Other than that I show a few 30-day-lates from earlier in the year on a mortgage and car loan, and have a matured paid-off car loan which shows on the reports as 60 days delinquent with a balance of zero! I also have two paid charge offs from 2007 and 2008. Ficos are around 600, so pretty low. I suspect applying for any other Amex would just be a wasted hard enquiry.

Thank you in advance for any answers

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I just applied for Zync and got a counter offer from Amex, which I accepted with a $500 SL and automatic payment. I have 3 questions if anyone knows the answers.

1. Is this counter offer an approval for the lower limit, or are they still likely to decline outright?
2. If the counter offer is an approval of sorts, is the $500 limit permanent, or is there a likelihood that they will raise / remove it in the future?
3. If the counter offer is an approval of sorts, is this worth the hard enquiry?

I was a little surprised to get any kind of offer. I have two Cap1 cards with low limits (1 personal, 1 business but reporting on my personal report) which are a little over a year old with no lates and zero balances. Other than that I show a few 30-day-lates from earlier in the year on a mortgage and car loan, and have a matured paid-off car loan which shows on the reports as 60 days delinquent with a balance of zero! I also have two paid charge offs from 2007 and 2008. Ficos are around 600, so pretty low. I suspect applying for any other Amex would just be a wasted hard enquiry.

Thank you in advance for any answers

---

First Congrats on being approved with counter offer! 

1) Since they offered and you accepted and they processed the application with auto pay then you are set

2) The Spending Limit will increase with your spending habits and history with Amex

3) It's really subjective because you are the one who applied for the card and will be using it...so you tell us is it worth the INQ? 

[-Cain-]

I would definitely go for it. I was declined and would have loved the counter-offer. The limit should be raised or eliminated after some time so long as the account is kept in good standing.

[Anonymous]

Not a waste of an inquiry if you got approved(which it sounds like you did). I believe with scores in your range, yes it would be a waste to apply for any other Amex products. You got your foot in the door with a great CC company, take care of it and make sure you don't charge more than you can afford!

[Anonymous]

2) The Spending Limit will increase with your spending habits and history with Amex

Are you saying the best way to try to get a sli is to use the card quite a lot and keep it in good standing?

I can do this - I would simply use it instead of a debit card for some purchases and keep the money saved on the debit card  for the monthly pif. Presumably this would show a high utilization on the credit reporting as the latter is a monthly snapshot but I can reduce the effect of this by keeping the Cap1 cards to zero balances on the reporting (pif just before the reporting dates instead of the due dates). Am I correct in saying this?

Thank you for your answer btw.

[Anonymous]

I've read that they remove the hard limit after 6 mos. Zync is a charge card so it should not show up in your utility, except on the TU fico on here cause it's bugged. My zync utility shows up on my TU fico here but nowhere else so I would worry about it to much

[Anonymous]

Exactly what I needed to know. Thank you for helping.

[Anonymous]

Ideally since it's a charge card with a spending limit, it would be best to stay under or around 50% usage at first and gradualy increase to show responsible spending on the card. During the 6 month review they will see that you used the card wisely and didn't intenionally try to max it in hopes of getting a higher limit increase. Totally it's up to you on what you decide to do. I am only speaking from the business/finance aspect side of how the company reviews your habits. 

[nuggets321]

+ 1 .... take the deal...take the deal....!!!   It will likely play in to future dealings/approvals with them

[Anonymous]

Nope. Their status page just changed from 'processing' to 'declined'. Wonder why they wanted my bank routing code and account number.