Approximately 8 years ago, AMEX charged off about $15K on an account I had with them. I recently cleared all my credit card accounts and applied for the green card. Aquiring this card would mark the completion of stage II of my credit rebuild program that started two years ago. I called a few days later to check on it and was told it was declined. The reasons given were the usual assortment that don't apply to me. I was in a playful mood, so I inquired further with them, and the third person I spoke with was a Sr. Customer Service rep. He asked "so what is it you'd like to tell me?" I went on about the fact that I refinanced a car 6 mos. ago only to total it two months later. I told him about "consolidating my credit lines to get rid of the 'beer money' cards." I told him that I had 10 open lines because I was trying to build additional history. This is the reason that I have so many inquiries and new accounts on my report. I pointed out that I had very little balance on any of my cards, and that I used them to cover my monthly expenditures. This is why I thought an AMEX card would be so useful He noticed that I had 0 lates in 58 months of history. Not once was my previous account mentioned, or obviously factored in. He then said "Well, sir, you look like the kind of customer we'd like to have here at AMEX, I'm going to override the computer's decision" I was amazed. For those of you that remember my earlier post asking how best to proceed to improve my credit picture, I was recently approved for a $5K Discover Platinum. It has not shown up in my credit report yet. I have closed two of the sub-prime accounts, and plan to close another 3 over the next few months. I received my first department store pre-approval letter today (Spiegel's). My low (30%) credit in use was reflected in the credit reports the 10th of last month. For consideration: Although I am not getting approved for any prime card application I submit, Discover did approve the platinum card from the "invitiation" with 2.9% despite the inquiries, recent new accounts, and balances on 8 of 10 accounts. 4 inquires last 6 months, 12 total when I applied. $3.5K balance of $12K available when I applied. I'm gonna sit and let the inquiries fall off for another 6 months or so unless I get a solid pre-approved offer.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan Eric, This is a wonderful development! Congratulations! We at CreditMania have long believed that AMEX is one of the best creditors/companies out there. As long as you don't mistreat them or the account. And it is a blessing to know that a person can actually "negotiate" with a human and get results during the approval process. This will be a hopeful story for all to read. It will be interesting to see if they offer you a Blue in a few months. That is an intriguing card, one that I'd recommend. Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work, Barry Noret CreditMania.com, Inc. A Unique Personal Finance Portal http://creditmania.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *About our suggestions: We respond to your questions and make no claims that our suggestions will fit your exact needs. This is for informational purposes only and should never be construed as legal advice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan Yes...I was amazed it was successful. I'm interested in the Blue as well, but I figured I'd start with Green first.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan Congradulations! YOU MADE IT!! Im currentyly rebuilding my credit history through providian, merrik and capital one. I Think I will drop the (basically secured) merrik account for a secured amex optima in hopes that one year from now Ill earn a regular acct. I have one charge off on my report (6 yrs old) and dozens of inquiries. I think those are the only negatives on it. My capital one and providan are both unsecured and total 800$ of credit and are both 1 yr old. Any advice for the road ahead would be fantastic.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan Yea...I wish I had known about the Optima program a year ago..I would have taken it too. Unfortunately, though, it doesn't show on your credit report. I'd take it and leave it with $200 for a year. I was in the same boat as you a couple years ago. If you can resign yourself to the fact that you it will take 1-2 years to get back on top, it makes a big difference. Tips: 1. Don't bother applying for anything other than pre-approved cards until you are sure you have the necessary fico score. 2. Never, ever be late on a payment 3. Max each card once, then try to keep the balances low. I opened an account with every sub-prime lender that offered one, with the expectation that I would close them after 1 year with a zero balance for "satisfied accounts." I call this "buying credit," since you pay rediculous fees for the positive credit reports. However, some of the people here that are more experienced than I would debate that. Providian is a great card. I started with $400 with them, and I am currently at $2650 on gold after 18 months. I have learned a LOT over the last few years, and I'm happy to share this with others. Feel free to email me directly with questions if you feel more comfortable. Regards, Eric Rock wrote: ------------------------------- Congradulations! YOU MADE IT!! Im currentyly rebuilding my credit history through providian, merrik and capital one. I Think I will drop the (basically secured) merrik account for a secured amex optima in hopes that one year from now Ill earn a regular acct. I have one charge off on my report (6 yrs old) and dozens of inquiries. I think those are the only negatives on it. My capital one and providan are both unsecured and total 800$ of credit and are both 1 yr old. Any advice for the road ahead would be fantastic.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan I personally would not like to carry a credit card around in my wallet with a computer memory chip in it that has God only knows what kind of information on it.
I agree with Eric... ...however, I have been notified by numerous Secured Optima holders that after the 12-18mths, they were still denied a reg. account. "But of course, we only get their side of the story." And the fact that it is not "reported" is a negative to me. Having "positive history" on your report is the key. Besides the obvious cleaning up of the "past". I too like Providian. Started with $500 in October 98, and now have a Providian Gold with 6K line. It took getting over the attitude about deserving "prime" rates and fees that helped make the journey more tolerable. I always find it hard to understand why folks who have charge-offs/lates/liens, could expect a sub-prime creditor give them preferential rates. But they do, and its sadly unrealistic. Rock, it does take 2 years to get to other side of the tunnel. But once you get there, you'll realize the light you saw was not an on coming freight train! Good Luck, Barry Noret CreditMania.com, Inc. A Unique Personal Finance Portal http://creditmania.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *About our suggestions: We respond to your questions and make no claims that our suggestions will fit your exact needs. This is for informational purposes only and should never be construed as legal advice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan J.Edgar, I rarely buy anything in stores anymore. I would like to have the "Blue" option for online purchases and rewards. Peace, Barry
RE: I agree with Eric... I agree with your inference about the Optima holders. I suspect they had a few late payments. Even in the sub-prime market, I've found that if you keep your nose PERFECTLY clean, they will take pretty good care of you. Exceptions: CCB - Customer service and business practices suck Capital One - Don't expect any unsecured increases First Premier - After one year, I've gone from $250 to $350 (woohoo). I just cancelled my last (of two) cards with them. To their credit, they offered to knock my rate down to 13.9, but still wanted the $45 fee. Bye. All my lines have perfect payments. Not just with the bureaus, but with the card issuers. This is VITAL. You have to get out of denial, eat some crow, and work on solving the problem instead of continuing to frustrate yourself. Bottom line: Patience. Nothing sucks more than juggling payments on 6 different cards that have a 10 day payment window. But it has to be done perfectly. Eric.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan I'm have a similar situation as Eric's. I have excellent credit now (no late pays or chargeoffs). I did have a bankruptcy in 1991. Amex not only turned my down for the Green card, but also for the Secured Optima, due to Amex charging off a balance on my Optima in 1991. Inspired by Eric's story I called and asked why they would do something like that and they told me it's company policy to never issue a card to someone who's wronged them. I asked for a supervisor, and he explained that I need to talk to their "law" dept. I'm wondering if this is the department that made the exception for Eric?
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan No..the issue of the former account never came up. I was speaking with the new accounts department. This was just credit report review stuff. Now that I think about it, it might have been the old AMEX account that had the wrong social sec # on it. If that was the case, that would explain it. I had an account somewhere with a digit wrong long ago. I was hoping to add some evidence to the ongoing debate about the AMEX black lists, but maybe I've just created more confusion. One thing for sure, it's not based on your name.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan Amex is supposedly going to start selling an interface unit for Blue that one connects to the serial port on the computer that will read the smart chip and supposedly 'enhance' the online shopping experience and provide some extra measures of security. Some people might like this idea. I view it as another opportunity for privacy invading data collection. Websites would then be able to write to the chip and other site would be able to read it. It would be like carrying your own big Doubleclick browser cookie around in your wallet.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan For example part of the Clinton National Health plan involving that mock-up of a health security card he waved around at the state of the untion address would involve having a smart chip in the card with ones medical records on it. Would you want that to be with you at all times so that ANYONE could read it, including the police? Or perhaps a situation where there was some kind of medical info/payment card combination where if a pregnant woman used the card to buy cigarettes or alcohol the payment processing system would automatically notify law enforcement and social welfare authorities? It's the same thing as those snoopy supermarket 'club cards'. Some nosy person at the supermarket could run through all of your purchases to see if you bought condoms, ex-lax, personal lubricant, or anything else you might feel uncomfortable about other people knowing that you purchased.
RE: I agree with Eric... Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've understood that the Optima secured card is eventually reported to the CRAs but not immediately. I'm thinking it's either a year or 18 months. I'm working to help my daughter straighten up her messed-up credit. Judging by the looks of things, her credit should be back in order within the next year. She has a lot of collection accounts, but they were all for fairly small amounts--the largest sum being for $460. We've done quite a bit of negotiating, and it's working. I talked her into getting the Optima secured card, hoping she'll eventually qualify for a regular Amex card by the time her credit reports are cleaned up. I've noticed they haven't been reporting, but I've read somewhere that they eventually will report a positive status.
Thank you Eric-Barry Thanks for the advice fellas. I had no idea that the optima isnt reported. I still belive that it would be worth it if they approve me for a greenie! Thanks again guys-you gave me some hope for the road ahead
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan Rock: Your situation is similar to mine in many respects. I would guess that your chargeoff was a big one, because I had a $300 chargeoff only 3 years ago and I'm already ahead of you with Providian and Capital One. I started at $500 and $200 about six months ago, was raised to $700 and $300 after a few months, and was recently offered $1000 more by Providian, although there is an obnoxious "upgrade fee." I don't know what the difference could be. I do have a $1000 Citibank card, recently raised to $1500 at my request. Even when I was evicted and two months behind with Citibank, I paid the card up again to try to preserve my credit history. Apparently it worked, but with some delay involved. I have found that once you have more than one card, you seem to be legitimate and the offers trickle in. They pour in to my neighbors, so it can be frustrating, but every few months I get a decent offer. I make sure to avoid any new annual fees; Capital One and Providian already have me sick of those. Your dozens of inquiries could be your biggest problem. After I got my two new subprime cards, I got cocky and thought a Sears card would be no problem. Well, it was. Then last month it was Next Card. When you get turned down, you want another card on the rebound, but it just doesn't happen that way. If you would settle for more credit rather than a new card, I think Providian is the way to go. They offer more credit quite frequently after the first few months. As is often mentioned in these pages, Capital One is not going to raise your limit very much if at all. They just want to continue collecting the annual fee without putting more money at risk. Anyway, Providian could keep you happy until some of those inquiries drop off. If they aren't offering you any upgrades, you probably aren't paying enough each month. If you go beyond the minimum and pay 40 or 50 dollars each month, they start liking you a lot better. I am slowly learning that the building and rebuilding process is never as quick as you would like, but once it starts happening nothing except your own stupidity can stop it. I predict that within 9 months, you will be getting offered at least one decent (no annual fee and less than 20% interest) card per month. It's already starting for me.
RE: Good news on the AMEX quan Or perhaps a situation where there was some kind of medical info/payment card combination where if a pregnant woman used the card to buy cigarettes or alcohol the payment processing system would automatically notify law enforcement and social welfare authorities? >> I dont see anything particularly bad about this idea, in this particular context.
