Three whoppers from AmEx CSR in chat

[Anonymous]

So I opened my AmEx Delta Skymiles Gold card on 8/11/15 with a $5000 SL, which means I should have been eligible for some type of CLI around 11/11/15.  Of course that doesn't mean they have to give me one, but that's ~91 days so my account should be eligible.  No dice at first, and I have been pushing the luv button around once a week ever since to see if they'll finally give in.

My scores took a dip to around 630 - 650 in Sept-Oct as I opened a few new accounts around that time, but they've since climbed back up to 702 - 728 more recently as the accounts have aged, a baddie fell off, an Inq or two fell off, etc.  Still nothing.

Even though I was pretty sure it would be futile, I decided to try chatting with a rep to see if my account was ineligible for some reason and if they could tell me when my card would be eligible.  Side note:  my wife opened a BCP on 8/27, got an immediate 3x CLI, and made me an AU.  I'm wondering if this would make me ineligible for a CLI until 6 months after that since the card shows up as one of my cards when I log in.

Anyway, here's where I found the CSR to be worse than useless, giving me no less than three pieces of wildly inaccurate info -- at least I think, I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong.  She told me that 1) my last denial for a CLI was on 11/17 -- I have tried and been denied probably six times since then.  And 2) that I would therefore not be eligible for a CLI until 6 months (!!) from the last denial.  I told her I thought the policy was 6 months after the most recent approval for a CLI, she insisted it was from the latest denail.

Then, she offered up that 3) every time I ask for a CLI my credit score goes down.  What???  I know that in some cases a CLI request CAN be a HP but they're supposed to make that clear before pulling a report.  I know she's wrong about this because my last HP from them is when I was approved for the Delta Platinum card in September.  I check my EX report on CCT every day.

Anyway, just one more example of AmEx frontline CSRs being terrible.  I'd have been fine with any of the following answers:  Your account is ELIGIBLE for a CLI, but we're not approving you because our most recent review still has a baddie on it, or because you opened a Gold, a Platinum, and were made an AU on a BCP withing a short time period.  Or that I'm not eligible because my wife's BCP was recently granted a CLI, or whatever.

Am I the crazy one here?  Or was that a pretty poor performance on her part?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I opened my AmEx Delta Skymiles Gold card on 8/11/15 with a $5000 SL, which means I should have been eligible for some type of CLI around 11/11/15.  Of course that doesn't mean they have to give me one, but that's ~91 days so my account should be eligible.  No dice at first, and I have been pushing the luv button around once a week ever since to see if they'll finally give in.

My scores took a dip to around 630 - 650 in Sept-Oct as I opened a few new accounts around that time, but they've since climbed back up to 702 - 728 more recently as the accounts have aged, a baddie fell off, an Inq or two fell off, etc.  Still nothing.

Even though I was pretty sure it would be futile, I decided to try chatting with a rep to see if my account was ineligible for some reason and if they could tell me when my card would be eligible.  Side note:  my wife opened a BCP on 8/27, got an immediate 3x CLI, and made me an AU.  I'm wondering if this would make me ineligible for a CLI until 6 months after that since the card shows up as one of my cards when I log in.

Anyway, here's where I found the CSR to be worse than useless, giving me no less than three pieces of wildly inaccurate info -- at least I think, I'd love to be corrected if I'm wrong.  She told me that 1) my last denial for a CLI was on 11/17 -- I have tried and been denied probably six times since then.  And 2) that I would therefore not be eligible for a CLI until 6 months (!!) from the last denial.  I told her I thought the policy was 6 months after the most recent approval for a CLI, she insisted it was from the latest denail.

Then, she offered up that 3) every time I ask for a CLI my credit score goes down.  What???  I know that in some cases a CLI request CAN be a HP but they're supposed to make that clear before pulling a report.  I know she's wrong about this because my last HP from them is when I was approved for the Delta Platinum card in September.  I check my EX report on CCT every day.

Anyway, just one more example of AmEx frontline CSRs being terrible.  I'd have been fine with any of the following answers:  Your account is ELIGIBLE for a CLI, but we're not approving you because our most recent review still has a baddie on it, or because you opened a Gold, a Platinum, and were made an AU on a BCP withing a short time period.  Or that I'm not eligible because my wife's BCP was recently granted a CLI, or whatever.

Am I the crazy one here?  Or was that a pretty poor performance on her part?

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I can't speak for the other stuff, but on the part that I put in bold, I was told the same thing by an Amex chat rep and it turned out not to be true. My increase did not have to wait for 6 months from recent denial. It was 6 months from first denial.

[yfan]

Fortunately, this is an instance of the customer being better informed about credit than the CSR.

[Anonymous]

[-Cal-]

I believe if you were eligible at the time you requested your CLI and you were denied, then you must wait 90 days after denial to become eligible again. If you were ineligible (tried too early) then you don't have to wait. In your case it looks like you have to wait 90 days after last denial. 

[newhis]

You got the card 8/11. You mention 11/17 as your last denial. When was your first denial?

[Anonymous]

+1 for what cal said.
From personal experience, you have to wait the 90 days from the denial.

[Anonymous]

the 90 day part is true. but the other reasons the CSR gave were true. you misunderstood. you aren't eligible from your last denial being 11/17. the 6 months is only if approved but if denied its 91 days as you stated (which is correct)
but when she said each time you ask your score goes down she wasn't saying its a HP, she's saying you score has been decreasing from the last time you asked until the most recent time.

the CSR was wrong about 1 thing, not three. you didn't "school" anyone.

[bada_bing]

Unless the CSR expicitly mentions FICO score, they may have been speaking about internal

AMEX risk score. What they said, if its about about your internal score declining with every denied CLI request,

may very well be true. There is anecdotal evidence that even checking your spending ability makes AMEX

uneasy. They have probably the most liberal CLI schedule of any credit card issuer, but it stands to reason

they have to have exceptional risk management in place to continue offering it.

In credit card management, slow and steady wins the race. Getting impatient can be detrimental. It will make

no difference within 2 years, you can be at your max internal exposure limit by then with AMEX.

That all doesn't discount AMEX having some clueless CSRs. I have talked to several myself over the years. It's

just something that goes with the territory.

[Anonymous]

you're right. amex does have some (most) CSRs that don't know much (which is surprising from a company that boasts customer service) but i don't think they were referring to what OP was thinking.