Someone told me that the approval requirements for the Delta Skymiles and Starwood cards are lower than the other Amex credit cards because these have annual fees. Is this really true or are the requirements about the same ? Thx.
its true i got in around 655 score with delta skymiles, they didn't mind my 100's of inquiries. I also got a amex business card recently too. once you have a delta skymiles you are welcome to move around the optima products freely too.. i went to optima platinum (3.9 for 6 months) and now thats up i switched to cash rebate (0 for 6 months)
I got my Gold Delta SkyMiles with a 650 on Equifax. I traded it for the Optima Platinum. I also had a ton of inquiries but that didn't seem to matter.
I think I waited a few days (5?) before I called them and asked to be switched. What they'll do is send you a letter confirming and then then day that your billing cycle ends, they mail you out your new card. When it arrives in about 4-5 business days and you activate it, your old card is no longer valid.
On friday I applied for the AmEx blue card and got the "we'll let you know via mail" response (a.k.a. denied). Do you think if I called them after receiving their notice in the mail they would consider the app for a skymiles card instead, and not pull another inquiry? My EQ fico was around 670 - 675 (it has since dropped due to the inquiry).
The only reason why I applied for this card was because at the time it had been discovered that credit card companies (i.e. Citibank) lowered their approval standards for airline cards due to the 9/11 tradegy and the fact that they wanted to help the airline industry by getting people to fly again. Also, with some or all? Optima products, Reps in the new cards department can manually override for an approval, thus making it possible to fast talk your way into a card. When I called to check the status of my SkyMiles card (which the automated system stated was in review status), I also was in a big debate with AMEX on the fact that I had a secured Optima card and was promised a Gold Charge card (through retention when I called to cancel the secured Optima) and it never showed up. I think after hearing my sob story regarding the secured Optima and even participating in a 3 way conference call with Optima retention department, that new accounts felt bad (cause I did get the shaft) and did a manual override for an approval. I played the roll and the lady said, "Oh..well I see here that you're approved for the SkyMiles card so at least you have one card" (sort of throwing that in the retention reps face). But I never did ask if that was what happend. So, basically...a lot of us here did a 'BDD' (back door double...or would this be considered a back door single?) with AMEX. Meaning, we found a card that we could get approved for and then after approval switched to another card that probably wouldn't of yielded an approval if applied for the traditional way. Also, I never fly on Delta so...and that was one iof the excuses I used when calling retention to product transfer to another card. I told them that I thought I was going to start doing some travel on Delta but that changed. They were totally understanding and gave me choices on what card I wanted to switch to.
