GrnLantern

Indeed.

No offense to you, mileschlinger, but this sounds like the general speculation that we see on the boards and on the internet about the mysterious Centurion card.

GlobalServiced

It also seems that the type of spend is incredibly important as speculated in the past.

Amex seems to look for luxury good spend; airlines, hotels, boutique shopping as opposed to running all of your company office supplies through the card.

mileschlinger

is that personal spend or business- if personal what % of your revolving credit do you spend each month.

mileschlinger

the ECOA and the fairness in lending act pretty sure have changed how AMEX extends credit- this was not quoted to me exactly but pretty sure this is what was being talked about.

basically without a FR AMEX can only extend FAIR credit based on HISTORY of SPEND-REPAYMENT and FICO- this is why they monitor % of revolving outstanding and FICO every month.

yes people that push 2+ million have excellent credit. AMEX will NOT float or extend a 250K per month bill to someone that doesnt.
smaller fish might have 835+ credit but without the spend they dont get the black.

mia

Understood, but the color of the card does not represent higher spending ability, only different annual fee and benefits.

Steve M

This. I don't think it's right to say that all 2M+ spenders have the highest FICO scores, for a variety of reasons. For one, FICO doesn't take into account income or assets, only credit history, so people with a high spend sometimes appear to be carrying high balances on their credit reports, even if they pay everything off each month. Another issue is that people with high spend often have a lot of personal and professional business of a variety of sorts that generate a higher-than-normal amount of inquiries, which can bring down a FICO score.

Centurion

^I know a billionaire who has an Amex green card. People make jokes about his green card all the time who know him as he could buy any location he visits. As long as amex is comfortable with card holders ability to pay you can spend way more than a average Centurion card holder.

RichardMannion

I don't think your FICO score has much of a weighting - sure it could be a factor but it's not a straight gate of you need to be 800+.

The only reason I have a reasonable FICO score (and it is not 800+, more ~780) is because AmEx ported my credit history over when I moved here to the US in 2013, so length of my longest account is the opening date of my AmEx in the UK in 2000. That made a massive bump to my score.

Yes they did a credit inquiry when they offered me Centurion early last year, but my score then was mid-700's. What they would have got was a perfect payment history, and their own internal analytics on my spend (which is not $250k+). I think the days of spend $x on your card and you will get an invite are long gone.

jstbrwsing

does anyone know if authorized users spend make a difference, or do they like to see it all on one card?

csesq

That's a really good question. Main person is responsible and paying the bill. Lord knows my wife and kids "contribute" and use.

darrvao777

Sigh, I'd like to get there one day but my spend is nowhere close to any of your highrollers.

Subscribed just to live vicariously through others

SteveT

There is no correlation between one's credit score and credit extended.

I dont believe Amex has a minimum score requirement for the Centurion Card.

SteveT

Warren Buffet has a Green Card.

GrnLantern

+1

I'm pretty sure it's no different from the Platinum Card requirements.

And since you generally need to be a Platinum cardholder to qualify to get invited to Centurion, I see no reason why they'll care unless they see hideousness in your history during their regular ~monthly soft pulls.

emcnj

The 4M is both business and personal, and there is a healthy balance between both. I would venture to say that close to 500k was spent on luxury travel arrangements and/or goods in 2016.

I pay my balances in full, very often, before the statement close date, so rarely do I go over 1% utilization ever - only in the event I have a large purchase post on the date of my closing.

this would be a very interesting data point to figure out. I can tell you from experience that AMEX does aggregate my spend associated with my personal body (name/ssn) across all of my card accounts and authorized resellers.


+1 to SteveT's point as well. AMEX extends or shuts off your line of credit based on an internal algorithm they use that includes things like payment history, frequency of charges and trends. They may use your FICO or CR as an "influencer", but never to determine what they extend.