Re: Perplexed by Amex Approval Criteria

daveg38 · ‎09-28-2014

I've surfed these boards a little while now, always trying to pay attention to approval scores needed to get into the Amex Kingdom.

I just read through Who Game Me Credit and Credit Pulls database, and am perplexed. People getting Amex BCE with 4 CO's and thin files. People getting denied with 740 scores. People getting approved with 4 months of credit history...it's perplexing.

Current situation with girlfriend - 13 months history of perfect payments. Has Paypal Smart Connect ($750), Amazon Store ($1400), Capital One Platinum ($750, just emailed EO for $3500 limit request because of the crappy 'account can't be reviewed for increase' message) and Credit One ($750). NEVER misses a payment. Few inquiries. NO collections, judgments or baddies period.

So what gives? I'm holding her back from pulling the trigger because I'm not sure if the perfect payment history will overrule the 68% UTIL. If EO calls her Monday and approves a substantial increase that chops her UTIL in half, would she have a chance at a BCE? I'll get her to tell customer service she first applied in '97 to help her get a backdate and healthier AAoA.

Ch7 Discharge: 5/14/2016 | Target RedCard $900 | Merrick DYL $500

Anonymous · ‎09-28-2014

I'v read they are not actually looking for just one group of people for new business. They are looking for business for at least two potential customer bases. One is the older prime crowd that is the epitome of a long deep well of perfect credit history who are set in there ways in a good way. The next group being a yonger sub prime crowd they are grooming who aren't afraid of the plastic and have perfect payment history. I fall into the later. I had less than a years credit history on a secured card, perfect payment history and wasn't looking for other credit. I had a subscription with freecreditscore.com and they had my score at 650, I even had a free consultation with their advisors who suggested I apply for a cap one card, and less useful answers to my questions than I've found here on my google searches, so I canceled and go a subscription here. My real fico score at the time was 755. I just pulled the trigger. I couldn't believe it. Instant approval.

What is her score?

taxi818 · ‎09-28-2014

@daveg38 wrote:
I've surfed these boards a little while now, always trying to pay attention to approval scores needed to get into the Amex Kingdom.

I just read through Who Game Me Credit and Credit Pulls database, and am perplexed. People getting Amex BCE with 4 CO's and thin files. People getting denied with 740 scores. People getting approved with 4 months of credit history...it's perplexing.

Current situation with girlfriend - 13 months history of perfect payments. Has Paypal Smart Connect ($750), Amazon Store ($1400), Capital One Platinum ($750, just emailed EO for $3500 limit request because of the crappy 'account can't be reviewed for increase' message) and Credit One ($750). NEVER misses a payment. Few inquiries. NO collections, judgments or baddies period.

So what gives? I'm holding her back from pulling the trigger because I'm not sure if the perfect payment history will overrule the 68% UTIL. If EO calls her Monday and approves a substantial increase that chops her UTIL in half, would she have a chance at a BCE? I'll get her to tell customer service she first applied in '97 to help her get a backdate and healthier AAoA.

Well after reading your quote about. everything about your gf profile is perfect.

However no amount of payment history in the world. will allow amex to approve with 68 percent utilization.

if you really want that card for your gf.

All you have to do is read here. as opposed to who pulled my credit data base.

The one thing about all that amex likes besides history. is very very low utilization. they will take a baddie.

a single collection. and other negatives.

as long as you have corrected or if it is very old. but ive never seen anyone with over 40 percent util. get approved. in fact. 30 percent is hard.

just pay those credit cards off and then apply. should be ok.

lg8302ch · ‎09-28-2014

Instead of asking for a CLI to lower util rather pay down the balances. Once done she should be ready for Amex. In case you want to try to go the CLI route then you need to wait until the new util is reported otherwise it will still show the high util and this will most probably result in a denial even with a nice score.

daveg38 · ‎09-28-2014

@lg8302ch wrote:
Instead of asking for a CLI to lower util rather pay down the balances. Once done she should be ready for Amex. In case you want to try to go the CLI route then you need to wait until the new util is reported otherwise it will still show the high util and this will most probably result in a denial even with a nice score.

Yeah, I think you're right. I think she's teetering between 640-650 on EXP. So I'll get her around 12-17% and pull the trigger.

BTW, nice spread lg8302ch!

Ch7 Discharge: 5/14/2016 | Target RedCard $900 | Merrick DYL $500

taxi818 · ‎09-28-2014

@daveg38 wrote:
@lg8302ch wrote:
Instead of asking for a CLI to lower util rather pay down the balances. Once done she should be ready for Amex. In case you want to try to go the CLI route then you need to wait until the new util is reported otherwise it will still show the high util and this will most probably result in a denial even with a nice score.
Yeah, I think you're right. I think she's teetering between 640-650 on EXP. So I'll get her around 12-17% and pull the trigger.

BTW, nice spread lg8302ch!

Hmmm. i think when she get utilization down her score should rise a little. hopefully over 665, that seems to be the norm with the charge cards from amex. minimum i meant to say.

lg8302ch · ‎09-28-2014

@daveg38 wrote:
@lg8302ch wrote:
Instead of asking for a CLI to lower util rather pay down the balances. Once done she should be ready for Amex. In case you want to try to go the CLI route then you need to wait until the new util is reported otherwise it will still show the high util and this will most probably result in a denial even with a nice score.
Yeah, I think you're right. I think she's teetering between 640-650 on EXP. So I'll get her around 12-17% and pull the trigger.

BTW, nice spread lg8302ch!

That is an excellent idea. It has also at least two advantages... score will go up with lower util and she will not get in trouble like that..lol ... Good luck to her and hopefully soon a welcome to the Amex family

elegia · ‎09-28-2014

Utilization is a really easy factor to tweak to perfection, and it makes a big difference for thin files. Since there's no real reason why she can't maximize her score before applying, just have her wait until it's perfect (ideally, over 1% but as low as possible, preferably under 5%). I monitored my score for the few months leading up to my Amex application and noticed fairly large fluctuations in my scores (via CK and CS) that pretty much only had to do with util, since at that time I only had 2 years of credit history (one cc, no late/missed payments, no baddies, no inquiries even, etc.). If she can maximize util, her score probably shouldn't be that low. When I applied for my BCP, I only had about 25 months of history but my score was in the mid-high 700s.

I'd also recommend checking cardmatch to see if she's pre-qualified for the card she wants. I did and was delighted to find that I'd been matched with the exact card I wanted with a $250 signup bonus and lowest APR to boot. It's not 100% indicative of approval, and not having a match doesn't bar approval either, but she could end up with a nice deal. In my case, the bonus was much higher than what was offered to anyone through the official Amex site, and I'm convinced that I would have ended up with a much worse APR had I not applied through the cardmatch offer - it's the lowest APR I've ever gotten, even when I applied with better numbers and a thicker file.

Good luck!