We know that Amex doesn't like bankruptcy at all. This has been shown as Amex can be very reluctant to give cards to those with bankruptcy and getting a CLI can be near impossible as well.
so here are my questions
1) what about charge offs/collections? Has anyone noticed that it's exponentially harder to achieve cards/increases with charge offs?
2) what about late payments?
it doesn't seem like derogs have the same affect as bankruptcy. As those with late payments are still able to get CLi's. And the 3x increase doesn't seem to be severely impacted by the presence of a late payment either. At least from what I've read.
I don't have enough data points on charge offs to say one way or the other.
What about older charge offs?
like let's say you defaulted on a capital 1 card 5 years ago and you now have an Amex card?
A bankruptcy (even an old one) can severely hinder you. Like you said, it can be years before you can get approved even if you didn't burn Amex. And once you get a card, increases are almost impossible.
Is there any proof that the presence of charge offs or late payments severely hinders your ability to get increases/cards in the same/similar way to bankruptcy ?
No friend, just curious.
any issuer would hold negative items against you. Yea. But Amex does it in a very specific way.
many issuers will still give you a card/increases with bankruptcy. But Amex won't (at least until it's reached a certain age)
So they have strict enforced policies others don't. I was curious if there was any evidence of a strict policy against charge offs/lates. It wasn't a generalized question on whether negative items are bad. More a specific question on whether or not there was evidence of a specific policy
Me for example, I have a late and I was able to get increases.
While Amex still has the 61mo rule if they were not involved in the BK, they have softened up when it comes to giving CLIs with a BK still reporting. It used to be very rare to get a CLI from them until the BK was no longer reporting. Whatever your SL was, would stay your CL until then 95%+ of the time. Within the last couple of years they have eased up on that. While I didn't get the 3x CLIs, I went from $5000 SL(1/2023) to $7500 (2/2025) and then to $15k (8/2025). The BK7 reports till 11/2027.
Interesting,
I have seen a couple stories here and then of people with bankruptcy getting increases. But I just chalked it up to "they are one of the lucky ones" I didn't know Amex was becoming more forgiving or changing their policy.
I would be very curious to see the following information
1) % of people with bankruptcy that were able to get CLI
2) % of people with charge offs/collections that were able to get CLI
3) % of people with 90+ day lates that were able to get CLI
4) % of people with 30/60 that were able to get CLI
obviously this information will never be released. But I am curious to know how much late payments and charge offs affect increases and approvals when compared to bk.
@BrutalBodyShots Agree in general. Though while I think Amex prefers to see balances reported, I don't think they care about high reported balances in the way C1 does. I've never had a reported balance over 17% on my BCP and that was more than a year before I got a CLI (despite usually letting it report naturally).