My wife would like to get an account with AmEx. She currently has the following... 1) FICO of 638 2) Cap1 - opened 8/99 - $1000 limit - $400 bal 2) Providian - opened 7/99 - $1000 limit - $600 bal 3) AAdvantage Silver - opened 10/00 - $9K limit - $1k balance 4) AAdvantage Gold - opened 10/00 - $9k limit - $900 balance 5) GECCC/Benchmark - opened 3/01 - $5k limit - $4999 balance (this is an 18 month no interest account at a furniture store). Her reports contains several "paid for less than full balance" accounts from 1998 (before we met). I don't think that she would be approved for any AmEx products at this point, but I'm not sure what her next step should be. I thought about having her pay off the Cap1 & Providian cards and drop those, but they're her oldest current accounts. I'm just not sure where she should go from this point to increase her score. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. TIA! Kirk
It is my belief that you can have a high FICO score and still be denied for an Am/Ex product. I don't think your wife will qualify unless she gets those "Paid for less..." off of her reports. I applied for the Fidelity Gold Am/Ex card (DEBIT CARD) and was DENIED! They sited 8 negatives (collections, chargeoffs, and settlements) on Equifax when I called to see why! Those negatives were all PAID w/ ZERO balances. They didn't care. Still makes me sick to talk about it.
So,actually she's been rebuilding now for 2 years.Last three cards are prime but none of 3 are over year old. The two oldest accounts are your stability when creditors are looking for history. I would focus on working your credit with Cap1 and Providian by getting some good credit line increases, talk to retentions depts. and with good history,you should be able to double credit line with each (wheather you spend it or not) and this should bring the " balance to debt ratio" down,which will raise your score enough to see the difference.As far as, amex goes: Amex will come with due time. Good Luck!!!!!!!
