Hello everyone. I have a question regarding AMEX. About 8 years ago when I had perfect credit, my wife and I had AMEX green and Optima cards. We ended up filing Chapter 7 in 1993, and our debts to them were discharged fully. Since the debts were discharged, we have not repaid the amounts owed to AMEX. My question is this. Will I ever be able to get an AMEX card again? If so, what are their credit criteria in terms of score, etc? And which card would I be eligible for? I loved my AMEX card more than anything I had at the time, and desperately want to get another one again. Please note that there are no references on any of my reports to my former AMEX accounts, and only one CRA (Equifax) is still reporting my bankruptcy. If you see my previous post a few minutes ago regarding inquiries, you will see that I have some negatives on my reports. I don't know all of my scores, but I do know that I have a 542 on Equifax. And this score, while yucky, has gone up 37 points in two months due to the progress made by my new credit repair service. Is there any hope for me to have an AMEX card again? Please let me know your thoughts. Thank you.
From what I have read on this board, Amex keeps internal records forever. The only way they will consider you for a new card would be for you to pay what you owed them. Also, I have read that credit scores need to be high 600's to qualify.
Numerous times here before the 'unofficial line' has been that 'Amex never forgets'... If I were you, I would call and talk to a supervisor to see what your options are before even applying (so that you don't waste an inquiry).
1. You will never even be considered for a Amex card until you pay your past debt to them, whether included in a BK or not. 2. If/ when you pay the principal in full (they'd waive accrued interest), you'd be removed from their shitlist within a year. 3. As long as a BK appears, you'd be auto-declined, unless an account manager would override it. S/he wouldn't do it until your score gets about 100 pts higher than it is now. 4. As you can see there's a lot of work ahead of you, but that doesn't mean you should give up. This board is about people not giving up. They keep building their credit patiently, and live to see the day they can get prime credit. Saar
Re: AMEX ( To Saar) Saar: Thanks for the advice. You confirmed what I kind of thought would be the case. I think what I will do is go ahead and call them to see what it would take to get off of their bad list (I will not apply at this time, of course, as it would be a waste of an inquiry). I guess I will then make it my ultimate credit goal to pay off my old AMEX balance(s) and get them to grant me a second chance with them. I know it is not an impossible goal, but it sure can be discouraging at times. I must say, though, that my attitude on my credit situation improved much in the past two weeks when I discovered that my new credit repair firm had managed to get 18 out of 23 negatives deleted from my TransUnion report in one dispute cycle, and a total of 8 deleted from the others (and of all of these 31 items, two were chapter 7 references.) So I will take your advise, be patient, and work towards becoming prime again. Oh, one quick question for you. I have heard from some folks that getting a positive "mortgage rating" does wonders for one's report/score. Is this true? I ask because I am getting a small $14K loan to refinance some vacant land I own, and I am wondering how much my positive history with this loan will help me out. Any thoughts, Saar? I have a $180K mortgage loan with my parents, but that doesn't report to the CRA's. Is there any way to get that reported? It seems unfair that I can't get a legitimate reference put in my files on such a major obligation. Your advice??? Thanks much.
Re: AMEX ( To Lizardking) Hi, Lizardking. You are right, credit is credit. My own personal reasons for liking AMEX was the fact that I didn't have a "hard number" credit line. True, if an AMEX holder tries to charge a $160K Ferrari on the card, it won't get approved automatically, but for the most part you can charge what you need to without having to worry about bumping up against a fixed limit. I know AMEX has some sort of internal limit, but in my experience, I never ran up against it, and I understand that if you pay well and keep increasing your usage of the card in terms of dollar amounts charged in a month, you can get a hefty reserve limit. The second reason I like AMEX is much less logical, specifically, I just like the prestige of having that card. I know that is superficial, but as a professional, having at least one credit card like AMEX is important. But overall, I agree with your comment. Credit is credit. Get good credit and keep it good, that's what is really important here. Oh, by the way, can you reply to my recent post entitled "To Lizardking Re; Inquiries". I'd like to have your input as you seem to know something about that topic. Thanks again.
Re: AMEX ( To Saar) "What is so great about AMEX? Credit is credit" Then why won't you take Cross Country's credit? "There are other cards with better rates than AMEX." Name one. Name one that would charge me less than their zero annual fee for my Blue AND less than 9.9% APR AND offer a Private Payment service AND Best Value Gurantee AND world-class Customer Service AND Purchase Protection AND Buyer's Assurance Plan AND Return Protection AND excellent Online account access AND BlueLoot points. Name one and I'd apply for it. Some say Diners Club is better, but Diners has all the features that make poeple blast the Amex green: It's a charge card and it carries a hefty annual fee. It's still an excellent card in my view, and some day I'll get that one too. Saar
Re: AMEX ( To Saar) Add this - they post payment to your account the day you pay it, not 2 or 3 days later.
