To those who have AMEX Gold

[Anonymous]

I probably have the most nerfed AMEX Gold on this forum. I cold app'ed for the Gold last March. (I just wanted it. I didn't even check prequalify.) I got it at a 640 EX. I had my Cap1 Platinum of 4 months as my only CC with a charge off paid a year prior. But I did have about a 3.5 year AAoA from student loans and car loan. 

If it is your first AMEX, you have a much higher chance to get it. They don't want you to live life without it lol

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous wrote:
Another idea that was shared by a member in a Gold thread of my own this evening:

When you set up the card after it arrives, hold off on enrolling in POT. He said that Amex has been known to offer to throw some MRs your way for enrolling if you haven’t done so by a certain amount of time after activating the card. YMMV as always, it’s not guaranteed, but if you don’t need to use POT right away, don’t enroll. Maybe they’ll sweeten the deal in a few months to get you to enroll later on.

I'm new to this so I apologise if I sound like an idiot for asking, but what do POT, MR and YMMV stand for? If you could give me some link for some of the many acronyms or I see, I would greatly appreciate this. 

[Anonymous]

All can be found here.

https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/User-Guidelines-General/Common-Abbreviations/td-p/88458

POT = "Pay over time"

MR = "Membership Rewards" ; AMEX points system

And ahhhh, this forums' bread and butter...

YMMV = "Your milage may vary" 

[Anonymous]

My brother got the Amex PRG... sept 2018 .. it was thru one of those mail offers pre approved ... credit score 600 ... 90% utilization... 2 collections ... approved right away after signing up online ... at the time 4 credit cards maxed out ... personal loan ... also applied for discover right before barely got approved got a $2300 cl ... started off like $1500 cl on the Amex before they started denying charges ... that was for like the first 3 months then went up to like $4-6k ... it has a limit of $10k before they deny charges now ... could be more never tried over that ... I was surprised he even got the Amex seeing as how low his credit score was and how much his utilization was. But kept swiping until it denied and paid in full every month and they kept increasing. I don’t think Amex really cares about credit score more about history ... his 4 accounts have been open for over 11 years with no missed payments ... and the last 7 months with Amex always paid in full on time ... so they keep increasing and his score right now is probably 650

[Anonymous]

Score definitely is a factor in getting in with Amex but I think that a score threshold seems to just be the “secret handshake” that gets you in the door. Once you’ve been with them a few months it does appear that they put significantly more weight on your account performance. If score was king, I don’t see any way I’d have my lineup with my EX score.

[Anonymous]

Before I applied the offers would change almost weekly. At first I saw 50,000 mrp after 2k spend then one day no pre approval. A couple days later I saw same offer for gold card but at 1k spend. That pushed me to apply.
Personally unless I needed the card for some reason right away id wait for another pre approval.

[Anonymous]

When I applied the AMEX Gold, my stats are follow:

 FICO score around 690

 No late payments

 Utilization 62%

 5 hard pulls within 2 years

 AAoA I belived is around 3.8 years

But the AMEX pre-qual website is really accurate..

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

@Anonymous wrote:
Another idea that was shared by a member in a Gold thread of my own this evening:

When you set up the card after it arrives, hold off on enrolling in POT. He said that Amex has been known to offer to throw some MRs your way for enrolling if you haven’t done so by a certain amount of time after activating the card. YMMV as always, it’s not guaranteed, but if you don’t need to use POT right away, don’t enroll. Maybe they’ll sweeten the deal in a few months to get you to enroll later on.

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Yep, I definitely jumped the gun on that one. When I applied they offerd it with an explanation that it was going away, and should enroll before it does. Or at least that's how I read it. Didn't know if I would evr use it, but at the same time didn't want to lose it. Later on I had heard this same comment. ohwell, you live and learn. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

To all of you who have gotten the AMEX Gold, what did you credit report look like when you applied. I'd prefer people who actually got approved respond. My Experian is 729, I have 100% payment history, all my accounts are in good standing, etc., but my average credit age is only 7 months and I'm worried this might hurt me. All thoughts and opinions are welcome! 

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I picked up the Gold just yesterday. 660 EXP, a lot of INQ., AAoA 2.5yrs, 2 Baddies. Got away with a 50k sub, and a $25k POT (moot since it's proven to be uncertain). There are other factors, but IMO I'd think your AAoA will be an issue. I had a few declines for this card, and each time account age was a factor. Until now. Wait.....it's not going anywhere. AMEX Pre-Qual is your BFF. Use it to your advantage.

[Anonymous]

I was approved over the weekend for the Gold.

FICO: 678
AAoA: 5 yrs 9 months
5 CO’s on report (charged off in 2016/2017 all paid off now)
1 of the 5 was an AMEX that was just paid off last month
1 Collection still showing, currently under dispute
3 new Cc’s 1 in Feb, 2 in Mar.
8 inq

In a nutshell, I was extremely surprised that I was approved. I also checked the spending power yesterday to purchase some flights for my family for $2600 and it showed that I was approved to spend that.

Hope you’re successful, if you haven’t already hit Submit!