@abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy wrote:since amex considers your spending when determining relationship, is there a tier of spending they consider?
What do you mean? The more you spend and payoff the higher your limits can get within reason. There is a good chance that once you hit 35k or higher in limits that they will request income verification. Then your limit becomes a matter of your DTI and is going to be whatever they think you can reasonably repay. If you are making 6 figures but are already stretched thin you might end up with a lower limit than someone making consierably less money but is frugal and has a lot of cash on hand. The limit will probably still be substantial though. Just don't get a payment returned for insufficient funds...they'll shut you down in a heartbeat for that. If you spend and pay enough they might forgo income verification however, there are people here that have 50k+ in limits and have never been asked. If you can pay it off AMEX doesn't care as much but carry a balance and they might take a closer look. Other than the general 35k limit "rule" I don't know of any other known "tiers".
8/22/24
3/09/25
Amex's secret sauce is not a known quantity, but they will base your CL on charge cards based on spend and payment history. I'm able to spend $100k+ on my charge cards without them blinking now, but they CAN and will get squirrelly if you ramp that spend up too quickly.
4506-C requests aren't quite as common as they were unless Amex has a deep concern about your spend/payment abilities. They're going off of paystubs and bank statements these days as I believe they realized that a 4506-C doesn't necessarily tell all. I could have 50M sitting in a money market account and be periodically withdrawing from that to pay my bills and a 4506 wouldn't represent my actual assets at all, only 1099/W2 income.
I requested a CLI on my Bonvoy card and went from 15k to 50k, but they requested 3 months of bank statements beforehand for income verification even though I went through a Financial Review with them earlier this year.
My total Amex exposure is well over $100k between personal and business before even before taking into account the charge card spend ability.
So in the end, it's 100% your spend and income that appeal to Amex as your "relationship".
