Thread: Need a Beginners AMEX card. I have "Bottom Feeder" cards.

Hello I have been on this site before and I see many people have great credit on here. I have 3 cards. I have Direct Rewards by Discover CL-500, Macys CL-600, First Premeier-350 and Credit One Bank-850. Now overall I may have about 50% available credit. I applie for AMEX Zync in December and got denied. I pay my cards on time. I'm in the military. I fall under the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, which credit companies can't report anything negative to the credit bureau's. Basically if i don't make a payment, its not at my fault because I'm on military orders. But they won't update my balance also. Even if its paid off, unless I request it. So I'm looking into the AMEX world, where can I start at. My score is about 620. Please help me. I need to bee in a tier 1 category. Thanks

Well I had some inquiries, credit history not long enough. Don't know how. I had a credit card for about 7 yrs now. Do you have a AMEX?

Originally Posted by Deighton

Hello I have been on this site before and I see many people have great credit on here. I have 3 cards. I have Direct Rewards by Discover CL-500, Macys CL-600, First Premeier-350 and Credit One Bank-850. Now overall I may have about 50% available credit. I applie for AMEX Zync in December and got denied. I pay my cards on time. I'm in the military. I fall under the Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, which credit companies can't report anything negative to the credit bureau's. Basically if i don't make a payment, its not at my fault because I'm on military orders. But they won't update my balance also. Even if its paid off, unless I request it. So I'm looking into the AMEX world, where can I start at. My score is about 620. Please help me. I need to bee in a tier 1 category. Thanks

I am closing my "upper tier cards" next year before the annual fees kick in and switching to my "bottom feeders". Will be using a USAA Amex as my primary card.

Originally Posted by PlatinumAMEX94

Why don't you go and get a credit card through USAA? They have better rates and are more likely to approve you. They have the best cards, rates and returns. You can get a Visa, MC or AmEx through them.

+1 USAA and Navy FCU are two of the best financial institutions you can bank with. Since you have served our country, you are eligible to join.

Originally Posted by Deighton

Well I had some inquiries, credit history not long enough. Don't know how. I had a credit card for about 7 yrs now. Do you have a AMEX?

How old are you? 25-30? older? Even though you have had a credit card for 7 years, there is a term called Average Age of Account (abbreviated as AAoA). Essentially, any new credit added will lower your AAoA. So you may have one card that is 7 but if your other credit is only a year or two old, that can drag down your AAoA to 3 years or less. To find your AAoA, write down all of your credit cards/loans (and even collections) and the month and year they were opened. Next to each account, figure out the age in months. So, for example, if you opened your oldest account in January 2009 that would be 36 months as 1/09 was three years ago (3 x12 = 36) and so forth. Once you have done this, add up all of the months. Then divide by the total number of tradelines (this includes credit card accounts, installment loans, mortgages and even collection accounts). Then divide that number by 12 and you get a number that should be a decimal with a leading number (i.e 3.25). If you divide the .25 by 12, that gives you months. So three years, .02 months. The credit bureaus will not register the .02 months, so the average age would be 3 years.

So they may be looking at the AAoA of your accounts in determining the age of credit.

Amex also uses an internal scoring system for approval, so it is really hard to determine what they will accept. When I was 20 and I had only had credit for 1 year and 3 months (and 7 recently opened accounts) they sent me a preapproval for a Gold card and they approved me with a score of 620. So who knows....I would wait for your Experian inquiries to be mostly a year old and get your utilization down to 30% and apply again. Zync is regarded as being the easiest to be approved for as it was designed with the 18-22 year old in mind. But the Green is likely just as easy.

LOL.Yeah u got too.

Originally Posted by PlatinumAMEX94

Why don't you go and get a credit card through USAA? They have better rates and are more likely to approve you. They have the best cards, rates and returns. You can get a Visa, MC or AmEx through them.

I have applied with USAA in the past about their AMEX , but haven't recently. I should try.