Getting "you are preapproved!" message for all Amex cards

[Anpanman]

I'm a new Amex cardholder (opened Delta SkyMiles Gold on 1/21/23). While logged onto my Amex account to check my balance I decided to see if I was preapp/prequal for any other Amex cards. I went to the view all credit cards page, chose a random card and pressed the "apply now" button. To my surprise I received the "you are preapproved" message. In fact, I got that message for all of the Amex cards.

This can't be right, can it? Has this happened to any other Amex cardholders?

[wasCB14]

Amex cards don't generally require high minimum credit limits. Maybe some higher-AF cards require like $5k? I'm not exactly sure of the minimums.

Outside of short-term promotions, Amex isn't generally know for particularly low interest rates.

Some customers have charge cards with 6/7/8/9-figure spending power. Others have low 4-figure spending power.

So pre-approval for most/all cards isn't necessarily such a difficult thing to get if you have clean credit history.

[Kforce]

I put Amex there with Cap1 and Discover as easy to get cards,

for younger, thinner profiles.

Many get an Amex as second or third card.

[Gregory1776]

i definitely agree with that. i was suprised how quickly my credit limits were able to grow with AmEx over Discover. Disco was super slow over AmEx.. i wonder why that is. perhaps us viewing them as more of a prestigious bank is outdated.

[nytokyobred79]

Congrats on your pre-approvals. Amex was my first card after a 20 year credit card hiatus. Like others said, you can get in with a clean young and/or thin history. And with responsible usage, things take off quickly. 

[isik]

Based on my research and (limited) experience, Amex only seems to care about clean histories, existance of a FICO score (so 6mo+ history) and you having a pulse. They are easy to get and they grow quickly. I think the reason they are willing to take a bigger risk than other companies is their high AFs on most of their cards, and their high APRs.

Discover and Cap1 are easy to get too but they don't grow as easily. Disco takes time, with their CLIs feeling really random. Cap1 doesn't usually grow.

I got my first Amex and Disco on the same day. Amex let me 3X CLI 3 months later, Disco made me wait for 6 months for 2X. Amex also gave me another card, Disco won't. My Cap1 is 6 months older than these with no real CLIs after the first auto-CLI, no upgrade offers, and no prequals for new cards. My BofA is growing the fastest, with CLIs every 3 months.

[Anpanman]

Thank you for the replies and feedback, very informative. I definitely do have 1) a clean, but rather thin and new file (5 tradelines, AoOA of 14 months, AAoA  of 6 months) and 2) low credit limits (average $1k CL per card). The reason this came as a surprise to me was only 2 weeks ago I was not getting the preapproved message for any Amex card.

[SweetCreditObsession]

What's even more surprising is that you can get additional cards with a SP.