Does American Express every take you back?

For the most part this is true, they have the proverbial memory of an elephant re: slow/no pay. They carve their "blacklist" in stone.

You can try for an AmEx through another card offerer, you may have success there.

 

No pay = true

Slow Pay - that one may be false.

 

I have no personal experience with Amex but have read alot of posts of people dealing with them. If you have an old CO'd acct with them they may offer a program called Oasis, which, upon paying the old amount off you will qualify for credit again. I don't know if it can be done if the amount was included in bankruptcy.

If your wanting to get back in with them and don't mind making arrangments to satisfy the old acct then you might call & talk with them. If you don't plan to settle with them then don't bother, they do blacklist, big time from what I have heard. Biz mentioned some other banks that offer a amex branded card. HSBC has one that I know of, I think there may be one or two more.

I personally am scared of them, they'll shut your accts down at the drop of a hat & require you to send all kinds of financial docs to get it repoened but alot of peeps luv them and they have been known to give generous CL's.

Good luck!

Tegleg

 

By and large they are a freaky outfit . . .

However, they can give decent lines. You need to call and inquire about Oasis if you want back in with them.

 

OASIS is the name of the program. You pay 'em off ... you get an Optima. You keep your nose clean, you can upgrade from there--although some have reported having to close the OASIS Optima first because it disqualifies them from having other products ... remember, in a big organization you can find yourself dealing with people and departments that are not up on the latest policies ... which can help you or hurt you.

 

The other question is, why do you really want an AmEx? Outside of some of the "concierge" services, the card is not really worth the fees...

 

Ditto. If they won't take your money, give it to someone who will. There are lots of Visa and MC cards that offer many of the same services as AmEx.

 

The point of having Amex can be that your company expects you to have a corporate Amex ... and Amex won't issue the corporate Amex to past defaulters. Having to use some sort of alternative arrangement would make you an odd duck in the company, it would be obvious to others in the company that you had had credit problems, and that could screw up your advancement opportunities and even affect your ability to do your job on a day-to-day basis (travel and entertainment could get dicey).

Not that it necessarily affected the person's job in this case, but years ago I can recall Howard Stern devoting the better part of an hour to the fact that one of his staffers was declined for an Amex, and not just declined but they had said "no way, no how, was this person ever going to be issued an Amex card." ... it made for a good bit (Howard Stern could make great radio out of one of his shoelace tips disintegrating), and whenever I hear of Oasis I think about that staffer and wonder if his problem ever got fixed...

 

I can fully appreciate the ramifications of denial for a corporate card. I also know about the travel & entertainment requirements for business.

The poster may want to try Diners Club, it is pricey,but I thought it was a better card than AmEx.

 

Try the BoA Amex product.

 

The only reason I got an AMEX again (I got pissed off at them in the mid-1980s and swore I'd never have their card again) is that they have the Delta Skymiles card. I have over 100K Delta miles that I want to protect until I retire.