@Anonymous wrote:
Uncle B, I check the pre quals daily and nothing has ever popped up. I figured it was a judgement. That was the number 1 thing listed.
I do have a question.... When I applied in April with a 645 score reason for denial said fico score, then proceeded to list judgement, amount on loan too high (got the loan in nov, so it would be high then) short history 3.5 years and util too high 30% (now at 10% possibly 9 next week,got some cli)
My question is all those reasons listed, are they trying to say that is why my score is so low which I was denied for, or are they telling me they denied me for those reasons?
I certainly can't speak directly for Amex (and everybody else here - if they're honest - will agree that they can't either), all I can do is share my own personal experience.
It seems to me, based on the experience of other's I've read on here, that your major 'contributing factor' in your denial was your credit score, since you don't find many folks on here getting an Amex with less than 650 (there might be outliers, but generally speaking...). I would be tempted to suggest that if your credit score had been higher at that time, or the judgement hadn't been there, it's more likely you would have been approved. I think it was the combination of the two that kept you out, with more weight on the score.
This being said, nobody can guarantee anything, and of course all applications are YMMV, but reading these forums has helped me to get myself in better shape to meet my financial goals (i.e. get rewards cards that fit my monthly spending). My situation was similar to yours; when I applied I only had approx. $1K in revolving debt, and no other debt. My file might be a little longer, though, as three of my accounts are 8+ years old, and I do have an old mortgage account on the file (it's about to age off 
)
When it comes down to it, there's no real way to know for sure until you just go for it 