To App or To Wait and Amex 3x CLI

[John02]

Good information and perspective. I think I'll just wait to app and in the meantime focus on getting other CLI's through SP's. Also, early next year (tax time) I plan on paying off some more to lower util and pay off small accounts and wait until all that posts to go for the 3x cli try. Since my bce is currerntly at 8,300 the 3x request will put it at 24,900, right under the magic 25k number.

So now that I think I know the general direction of my plan, what are some other good things I can do to make Amex happy? I've heard they don't like balances, but should I aim for a $0 statement balance or say somewhere in the 5-9% range? Any ideas on what would be good for use and payments, I'm guessing the more the better, but if I'm using another card a lot for rewards is there some minimum $ or % amount I should aim to spend/pay per month? Any other tips to make them happy?

[Dustink]

You could app now for the SPG. If declined it would only be a SP.

[John02]

Only a SP? That's interesting. Is that because I have another Amex account or how does that work?

[Dustink]

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@John02 wrote:

Only a SP? That's interesting. Is that because I have another Amex account or how does that work?

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Yes, because you already have an account.

If approved it will be a hard pull.

[John02]

Oh I see so a SP if denied, HP if approved. But thinking it would be backdated if approved (as my other one was)..so maybe this wouldn't be such a bad idea to try for the SPG..hmmmm

[John02]

Decided to go for it, figured if I got decllined then no harm, and if I got approved, it would be backdated pretty far, so only negative would be the inquiry.

Ended up getting approved! only for $3,200 though so thinking those other new accounts are probably hurting things. Still happy as the rewards program seems really solid and I can work towards getting CLI in the future. Thanks for the help/advice!

[youngandcreditwrthy]

Awesome!
Congrats, but still try to get a cli on the higher cl card in a few months.
Best rule: always pay 10-20% of your Amex balance. Try to pif if you can.
I've revolved about 3-4k during the 0% period and have experience no AA, and I've been pif my Delta gold.

[John02]

Thanks for the additional info!

I was just wondering about which Amex to request an increase on next. On one hand, its tempting to go for the higher one to hopefully get a really big increase. But on the other hand, I plan on using the new card quite a bit and pif for a while to get all the bonus rewards (10k points after first purchase, 15k additional points after $5,000 in purchases in 6 months).So what I'm wondering is if I'm using the new card and pif more than the old card, will that give me a better chance of a 3x cli on the new card, or does Amex look across all your accounts evenly when determining cli's?

[takeshi74]

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@John02 wrote:

Some info about my credit Utilization: Overall at 29% (so under my 30% goal)...which I'm trying to stay under despite the upcoming holiday season. Amex Utilization is currently at about 14.5%. Should I try to pay this off entirely? Or would getting it down to the 5-9% range and trying to use it a decent amount pay off? All other CC's/LOC have Utilization < 50% but some over 30%.

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30 is commonly suggested as a max but lower is generally better with utilization.  Get it down and you'll get better terms on new cards and CLI's on existing cards.