Amex or Citi?

[Anonymous]

Just curious what does it take to get approved for an American Express card or a Citibank Card? What do both companies look for?

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

What's your profile like?

- Length of Credit History

- How many accounts do you currently have open

- Any negatives

Providing some more data should help you get some good advice here by the community. There's a lot of experienced people here that would be able to help you. 

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Just curious what does it take to get approved for an American Express card or a Citibank Card? What do both companies look for?

Thank you!

---

Sometimes it comes down to the very card. 

For example, people have said the Delta Gold AMEX is pretty simple to get, with some approvals in the 630's. The Delta Gold is esentially worthless besides the free checked bag, and one is better off getting the Delta Plat with the free domestic economy companion ticket, or the Delta Reserve with its free Skypass lounge access and free domestic first class ticket once per year.

With most AMEX's (other than the charge cards) you're going to need north of 660 with a year or two of credit history at minimum, and even then it's still a gamble.  

[MrDisco99]

There is anecdotal evidence that Citi will not approve you if your report shows 6 inquiries in the last 6 months.

[EAJuggalo]

I received both a Citi Double Cash and an Amex Hilton HHonors with scores around 665, AAoA of less than one year, no derogs and oldest account opened 01/2016.  Neither with very good limits and all attempts at CLI have been denied.  But I have them both and use them both regularly.

[Anonymous]

Amex looks for low utization about 2 years Average Age or higher,  scores  700 or higher get good limits but they will take lower scores .   At  house we have Amex BCP  Amex BC.  and we got cli on all  Citi is hard to tell  what they are looing for.  We have a Citi Dc card that I use for a lot of misc stuff around $1K a month. It has a higher limit than Amex BC  and got a cli at 6 month also. All our scores were above 700 when we applied.  We pif most months.  The Amex BCP is most used and has $20K limit. WE did not ask for 3X increase at 6 months.  We just asked  for $5K to avoid FR/IVR.  

[drboxing]

I've had Citi AA World MasterCard for almost 2 years $1500 SL Was approved for AMEX Delta Gold $1000 SL this past July. My scores aren't 700.

[wasCB14]

Extrapolating approvals and limits seems especially likely to fail without considering the role of income.