Amex Eligibility and credit limit questions

PhenoM

Hi

Am thinking about applying for the Amex Platinum credit card.

Any ideas what Amex look for in the applicant and what their criteria normally are, apart from what's mentioned on their site?

My credit file so far:

1. 4 credit cards (two prime - Lloyds Platinum & RBS World -> Used them for balance transfer etc and the offer runs out in about 6 months from now. Had Lloyds for almost an year and RBS for about 4-5 months. Also have Cap1 and Aqua since I started building my credit file almost three years back. Almost nil balance on either. Never had a late/missed payment on any of them)

2. Two phone contracts (over two year old each - No late/missed payments)

3. Three bank accounts with £100 overdrafts etc. Never needed to use the ODs though, but think the green zeros help.

4. Am on the electoral roll at my address, but due to some funny address scheme with Royal Mail, don't show up on it, though Experian does say I'm on the electoral roll.

5. No hard credit search in the past 4-5 months apart from a couple of soft-searches so don't think that counts.

Moved into my current address about 10 months back and was at my previous address about 2 years.

I do meet all their criterions on the website. What chances do I have as I don't want to waste a search.

Also, in your experience, which credit card companies usually offer a higher credit limit. Thinking of cancelling my Cap1 and Aqua as they're useless (though the green zeros help every month)

Thanks a lot

Jaywilz

All financial institutions tend to keep their lending criteria top secret. I would say just check that there is nothing on your credit file that there should be and just bite the bullet and apply. I know this probably isnt what your looking for but im sure of someone has more of an idea they will be along shortly

[Deleted User]

I think you should be absolutely fine. I got the same card last August with a £6600 limit despite having been rejected in January.

Amex can be a little funny about giving cards out sometimes, I reckon you will probably get a referral when you apply online. What I did then was ring them about 4 or 5 days later and ask what the status of my application was. They asked me to provide proof of ID (not of income or anything like that). It was a pain in the !!! when I did it as they wanted a certified copy of my passport and the list of accepted certifiers was quite restrictive. It's my understanding that they have now relaxed this a bit and you can take your PP to the post office and have them sign it off.

PhenoM

Thanks guys.

Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet and apply.

Aside from Amex... which companies are generally lenient with their credit limits? I don't want to have too many cards. Just 2-3 max with good limits and cancel my Cap1 and Aqua.

Jaywilz

You coud get soft searches with some companies to see what credit limit your likely to get. I would say look more at what your expecting each of the cards to do for you rather than just wanting high credit limits. e.g cashback/spending abroad/points.

PhenoM

Well I'm basically planning on moving to Canada for a few years in July/Aug or so. And if I understand correctly, Amex will let me have a card there if I hold one in the UK for atleast 3 months. This'll help me build up my credit file in Canada too.

That tbh, is my primary motive.

Experian_company_representative

Might be better to wait until you've applied for the new card before closing the others. Many providers look at what % of your card limits you're regularly using, favouring people with low %s. If you close several cards you're likely to increase your average utilisation rate. We suggest you try to keep it below 30%.

James Jones

PhenoM

Well just applied for the Amex Platinum Cashback... and like Lazyloki said, it was referred.

Will still call them in 4-5 days and ask what's up.

Has anyone had this before? Any suggestions?

reclusive46

PhenoM wrote: »

Well just applied for the Amex Platinum Cashback... and like Lazyloki said, it was referred.

Will still call them in 4-5 days and ask what's up.

Has anyone had this before? Any suggestions?

Had all of my applications referred and accepted. Referred for Amex often means that the they have yet to get your credit report from experien (It is often delayed). I got referred once, called them up an hour later and I was accepted.

dealer_wins

Speaking about credit policy, I know Lloyds will vary the criteria/scoring every so often, depending on historic default and delinquency rates etc.

This could be as frequent as weekly small changes to the scoring (But staff dont know exactly what is being tweaked, as the computer will just spit out a decision)

PhenoM

Accepted at 22 or 23%, can't remember what he said.

Meh, too high when my RBS World gives me 9.9%. Will cancel once I receive the card and build my credit history in Canada from scratch.