Direct Challenge

[s_haliz]

Recently I was approved for AMEX Blue Cash Preferred with $20K initial CL. I was going through lots of documents and was able to discover the following: 

Key Factors that adversely affected your FICO score (My EX FICO was 792 at the time of AMEX inquiry): 

1. Too many inquiries in the last 12 months. 
2. Proportion of loan balances to loan amount is too high. 

Here's I do challenge to FICO and/or credit beureu: 

1. I had just TWO inquiries is last 12 months on EX (the beaureu from where AMEX did HP). Is that count as too many? Then what about someone who have 5,7,9,15 inquiries??? 
2. The original loan is $92,000 and it is on its 5th year of 15 year fixed mortgage loan. Current balance is $70,000. So technically it is 76% proportion. But when loan was initiated 20% down payment was put up. The purchase value of the hosue was $115,000. Currently its market value is $200,000. 

It is my understanding that Real Estate loan does not get treated the way Credit Card balance does (like utilization ratio). For example, to have a real estate loan in your overall credit profile is desirable. And in general when the loan gets reported in a first month, it is like 100% proportion!!! So how is it possible that my proportion is now high and it had adversely affected my FICO score? 

Normally I would not have paid attention, but instead of granting me the best APR or 12.99% they had granted me second best APR of 17.99% all in name of above two factors. Isn't it strange that you get nice initial CL of $20,000 but you are a risky borrower so we give you 17.99%. I had never missed/late on a single payment in my entire career. Never approach more than 10% (most of the times 1%-3%) of my credit limit. My income is in $200Ks. 

Does anyone have similar experience or can shed some light on this? Any personal experience? Thank you all in advance. 

[jamesdwi]

you were approved or denied based on the lenders propriatary internal scoring system. which may take into account many factors that the lender does not want to be made public (.i.e  multiple other reports, stated income vs credit card usage, time at your address, etc), yet it has to justify your CL and the less than the best APR, so they have a program that computes the worst aspects of your Credit Report and lists those as the reason. If your credit score was 850,  it would of printed some reason not to grant you the best APR if it didn't. The reported reason most likely won't make much sense when your scores are north of 740, its only a computer program doing its job with a limited amount of information its provided.

[s_haliz]

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@jamesdwi wrote:

you were approved or denied based on the lenders propriatary internal scoring system. which may take into account many factors that the lender does not want to be made public (.i.e  multiple other reports, stated income vs credit card usage, time at your address, etc), yet it has to justify your CL and the less than the best APR, so they have a program that computes the worst aspects of your Credit Report and lists those as the reason. If your credit score was 850,  it would of printed some reason not to grant you the best APR if it didn't. The reported reason most likely won't make much sense when your scores are north of 740, its only a computer program doing its job with a limited amount of information its provided.

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Thank you for your response. You explanation makes perfect sense. Though justification was explained in the letter was exclusively for less than desirable APR, and it was not for CL itself. However I can definitely sense that they were very conservative in granting intial CL as well. APR won't even matter much to me since I pay in full and never had paid a single dime in intertest all my life. However it still raises an important question in my mind: Are you one of their desirable and/or prime customers? Nothing against any customers who were in trouble in past (sometimes due to hardship/hard times) and had been granted by lender with lower limit and lower APR.

Speaking on 850, I may not reach there, however it is my goal to reach about 810-815 over next few months. Let see how soon I can get there. I used to have all three scores between 801-813 few years back.  

[jamesdwi]

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@s_haliz wrote:

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@jamesdwi wrote:

you were approved or denied based on the lenders propriatary internal scoring system. which may take into account many factors that the lender does not want to be made public (.i.e  multiple other reports, stated income vs credit card usage, time at your address, etc), yet it has to justify your CL and the less than the best APR, so they have a program that computes the worst aspects of your Credit Report and lists those as the reason. If your credit score was 850,  it would of printed some reason not to grant you the best APR if it didn't. The reported reason most likely won't make much sense when your scores are north of 740, its only a computer program doing its job with a limited amount of information its provided.

---

Thank you for your response. You explanation makes perfect sense. Though justification was explained in the letter was exclusively for less than desirable APR, and it was not for CL itself. However I can definitely sense that they were very conservative in granting intial CL as well. APR won't even matter much to me since I pay in full and never had paid a single dime in intertest all my life. However it still raises an important question in my mind: Are you one of their desirable and/or prime customers? Nothing against any customers who were in trouble in past (sometimes due to hardship/hard times) and had been granted by lender with lower limit and lower APR.

Speaking on 850, I may not reach there, however it is my goal to reach about 810-815 over next few months. Let see how soon I can get there. I used to have all three scores between 801-813 few years back.  

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in 6-12 months as a customer of AMEX you can ask a CSR or drop them a note requesting them to lower your APR. As you now have an established history with them. 

[s_haliz]

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@jamesdwi wrote:

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@s_haliz wrote:

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@jamesdwi wrote:

you were approved or denied based on the lenders propriatary internal scoring system. which may take into account many factors that the lender does not want to be made public (.i.e  multiple other reports, stated income vs credit card usage, time at your address, etc), yet it has to justify your CL and the less than the best APR, so they have a program that computes the worst aspects of your Credit Report and lists those as the reason. If your credit score was 850,  it would of printed some reason not to grant you the best APR if it didn't. The reported reason most likely won't make much sense when your scores are north of 740, its only a computer program doing its job with a limited amount of information its provided.

---

Thank you for your response. You explanation makes perfect sense. Though justification was explained in the letter was exclusively for less than desirable APR, and it was not for CL itself. However I can definitely sense that they were very conservative in granting intial CL as well. APR won't even matter much to me since I pay in full and never had paid a single dime in intertest all my life. However it still raises an important question in my mind: Are you one of their desirable and/or prime customers? Nothing against any customers who were in trouble in past (sometimes due to hardship/hard times) and had been granted by lender with lower limit and lower APR.

Speaking on 850, I may not reach there, however it is my goal to reach about 810-815 over next few months. Let see how soon I can get there. I used to have all three scores between 801-813 few years back.  

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in 6-12 months as a customer of AMEX you can ask a CSR or drop them a note requesting them to lower your APR. As you now have an established history with them. 

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Thank you. Agree with you. Though I will wait for 0% initial promotion to end. That's when I think right time to ask. Currently it is 0% and it will only be 17.99% after the promotion ends in January 2016. 

[Anonymous]

If the shoe fits, you must wear it.

It really just is AMEX being conservative.
They only gave gave me $1500 on the ED with a income of $41,000 and HH Income over $100,000 (That i have access to for basis of repayment)

[s_haliz]

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@Anonymous wrote:
If the shoe fits, you must wear it.

It really just is AMEX being conservative.
They only gave gave me $1500 on the ED with a income of $41,000 and HH Income over $100,000 (That i have access to for basis of repayment)

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True. For household income of $100K, its kind of low CL for sure. But I am sure you would get your 3XCLI after 61 days and another possible 3XCLI after another 180 days. That may bring your CL to $13,500. 

[Anonymous]

Hopefully. Lol.