American Express Eligibility ?

John1507

I was looking at the American Express Platinum cash back card as a future credit card, and the eligibilty according AmEx is:

I am aged 18 or over
I have a current UK bank or building society account
I have a permanent UK home address
I have a household income of at least £20,000
I have no history of bad debt

Which I meet each of, but I know I won't get accepted due to my small credit history. I've only had my current, and first credit card since November 2011, and the fact that I'm only 20.

How long a credit history do you need to have to be accepted for AmEx ? I am hoping 1 year will be enough come November 2012. But what do you think ?

Thanks.

stephane_2

Amex is one of the hardest card to get...how long credit history to you need? Well only Amex has the answer but I would think that 1 year would be well below their requirements.

Gordon_Hose

Why does it have to be AmEx?

Gordon_Hose

In any case, even though you can tick the eligibility off it all depends on a lot of other factors.

Like, what is your current borrowing against your income like?

chattychappy

stephane wrote: »

Amex is one of the hardest card to get..

Disagree really. "Exclusivity" is part of their marketing, but I got an Amex chargecard whilst still a student. Granted that was many years ago, but the experience of my staff more recently has been that their range of CCs is no more difficult to get than other mainstream cards.

bigadaj

BugsyBrowne wrote: »

Agree With chattyChappy Amex is only hard to get Like many other mainstream credit cards if you have adverse data on your credit report.
If you apply to Amex with a few missed/late payments and they turn you down it's pretty obvious why.

Amex has totally changed in the last few years, it is now little different to MasterCard and visa and accepted at the vast majority of retailers, it had a reputation for really screwing the retailers on commission, but this must have changed as tesco were promoting it's use a few weeks ago by giving extra points for using it.

ahxcjb

bigadaj wrote: »

Amex has totally changed in the last few years, it is now little different to MasterCard and visa and accepted at the vast majority of retailers, it had a reputation for really screwing the retailers on commission, but this must have changed as tesco were promoting it's use a few weeks ago by giving extra points for using it.

Actually, that's wrong re their fees on commission changing. AMEX is now charging some merchants 7% (!). Johnsons the cleaners have just dropped AMEX as a result of the increased fees.

btw - I hardly think citing Tesco promoting AMEX is a sign of a greater acceptance! Tesco takes _any_ card, as they can afford the transaction fees whatever they are. Their margins are the highest in the industry.

chattychappy

ahxcjb wrote: »

Tesco takes _any_ card, as they can afford the transaction fees whatever they are. Their margins are the highest in the industry.

You might be right. But I suspect its more the case of Tesco being so big that they can screw Amex down on transaction fees (just like their other suppliers). Ie their margins are big because their supplier costs are controlled, rather than they can pay a large transaction fee because their margins are high.

ahxcjb

chattychappy wrote: »

You might be right. But I suspect its more the case of Tesco being so big that they can screw Amex down on transaction fees (just like their other suppliers). Ie their margins are big because their supplier costs are controlled, rather than they can pay a large transaction fee because their margins are high.

Definitely agree there.

Meadows

Try MBNA they offer a Platinum CC & an Amex together (Amex gets you twice the points on transactions). I still has limited use some little shops surprisingly take Amex where some larger shops don't or have stopped taking it.

Maestro.

stephane wrote: »

Amex is one of the hardest card to get...how long credit history to you need? Well only Amex has the answer but I would think that 1 year would be well below their requirements.

if that is the case then why would they make age 18 the requirement. you can only have credit from age 18, so if you applied at age 18 it would be impossible for you to have had credit for a year.