Apply or not Apply on Amex Gold and EDP

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I have lurked for a long on these boards and appreciate the advice from everyone here. This is a great community. Thanks to the advice I found here, I got my financial life in order, though I confess it is because I would like to get and use travel rewards. I started rebuilding in August of this year from student loan lates and have improved my scores from the upper 500's to 720's (TU and EQ) and 660's (EX).

I check amex pre-approvals today and found I was preapproved for Cash Magnet, Delta Gold and the Everday Card. I have my sights set on a combination of the Gold and EDP but I realize it might be best to be cautious here. I was wondering if the odds for approval for the EDP are significantly different than the Everyday (or if the difference comes down to annual fee).

Also, given that I don't have a pre-qualification for the green or gold card, is this a situation where Amex is likely to deny me for the Gold Card but approve me for one of the revolvers. Any experience or thoughts are welcome.

Data Points:

Current EX FICO 8: 660

Annual Household Income: 200k+

Current cards: Cap 1 platinum since 9/2018, PIF before statement closing, never late.

AAoA: 8 yrs 7 months

7 Lates, 5 Inquiries

Edited for clarity and more data points

[K-in-Boston]

ED and EDP have similar if not identical underwriting standards.  With a 660, you should be fine for any of the Amex charge cards.  It's doubtful that they would approve you for an ED/EDP but deny you a Gold Card; keep in mind that with your scores a small credit line is likely with the revolving card, but as your scores improve you can take advantage of the 3x CLI every 181 days to ramp that up.

If the Cap1 is your only revolving account and you are paying it to $0 prior to your statement closing, you may actually be costing yourself some points.  Ideally, you'll want a small balance under 8.9% of the credit line reporting on one credit card at any point in time.  $0 is much worse for FICO scoring than $10.  $0 says to lenders that you don't use your credit, therefore they don't know if you manage them responsibly or not.

[Pikaboo-icu]

Excellent post by K..

I'll just add: Welcome to My Fico!

Glad you're out of the shadows. LOL