Applying for new AMEX SPG: how to maximize credit limit?
Oct 11, 2009, 1:39 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: CO
Programs: AA EXP, UA GS/1K, Avis First, Marriot PP, SPG GLD
Posts: 141
Applying for new AMEX SPG: how to maximize credit limit?
I've just started traveling a lot this year for work (new position at the company). I've spent a lot of time reading the FT forums on various programs, and I'm in the process of replacing my "old" CC with cards that will get me a better return.
First my profile:
I spend a lot of time at Marriots (108 nights this year), and a little at *wood (maybe 18-12 stays). I fly mostly F9 domestic, they're convenient and I just don't like UA even though they have a hub here in DEN. My international travel involves mostly European trips (3-5/year) + maybe 1-2 NRT, and next year, potentially 2-4 trips to HKG. For that, I fly AA and I was comp'd PLT this year because of my companies relationship with AA. I want to maintain PLT next year, and I should be able to do so with my international travel + maybe a few domestic flights (I do wish AA had more flights out DEN!).
Now as I said, I am new to the travel game. My short-term goal is I want to take the wife to Paris next spring for a vacation. I plan on staying at a Marriot, the Champs-Elysee is nice from what I've heard here. To that end, I just signed up for and received the Marriot visa (the top-end one with 15 nights + bonus). All my stays at Marriot are now paid for on that card, and I was given a $25K credit limit. I currently charge my other travel (tickets, car rental, etc) to a company Amex charge card, but I want to stop using that as Amex MR is not as good as the other programs out there. I also want to start working on AA LT GLD/PLT, so I want to maximize AA miles from rewards programs. Further, I am spoiled now, and want to take the vacation trip next year flying in business instead of coach, so I have even more reason to accumulate AA miles.
My credit profile is very good. I just pulled my Equifax and TU scores from myFico.com, and got a 755 from TU and 781 from Equifax. Both EQ and TU show no inquiries, but my Marriot card I just received is not on it so I expect that next month my score might go down a bit because I added the Marriot card. Credit utilization is 18%, though that will go down to zero this month after I pay off all the cards, so that should offset some of the loss I will take due to the Marriot card. I will also cancel some unused cards. I have ~60% equity on my house with less than $100K remaining on the loan, just paid off a home-equity loan last month, and we bought a new car in Jan. for the wife with 20% down (financed $30K @2.9%). I am 13 years at the current job. Summary: I have a car payment and a house payment, total combined of those 2 payments is less than 1 paycheck, and the credit cards will all be paid off in 2 weeks.
Now after reading the forums, it appears that the best card in general is the Amex SPG card. Not only can I use it for *wood stays, but I can also transfer to AA for miles at 1.25:1 (when including the bonus for transferring 20K miles). So I want to apply for and start using that card, however, from what I've read, Amex is giving very low CL's ($2-$3K) for new card members.
So the question is: is there anything I can do before applying for the Amex SPG that will help maximize my credit limit? I do plan to start canceling the unused cards, but how long does it take after canceling before it shows on the credit report? Will canceling these cards and applying for new ones show up as a negative, or have no impact? Should we cancel the store cards as well (Penny's, Macy's, etc..?) What's the optimal # of cards to have? Will canceling a card with a high limit hurt me because my total available credit goes down? Is there anything that will set off red flags to Amex prior to applying? I did just receive the new card from Marriot in Sept., so will applying for the Amex card so soon set off red flags? Oddly enough, the Marriot card is not on the reports yet, so should I apply now or wait until after I pay off all my cards in a few weeks (which would require waiting until next month and therefore the new Marriot card would be on the report)? Any advice? I basically want to use the Amex SPG to charge all of my personal and business expenses, but a $2K limit wouldn't even cover my airfare to Europe for my business travel, so I need to maximize the limit that Amex will give when I do apply. Ideally, at least $10K.
thanks in advance
First my profile:
I spend a lot of time at Marriots (108 nights this year), and a little at *wood (maybe 18-12 stays). I fly mostly F9 domestic, they're convenient and I just don't like UA even though they have a hub here in DEN. My international travel involves mostly European trips (3-5/year) + maybe 1-2 NRT, and next year, potentially 2-4 trips to HKG. For that, I fly AA and I was comp'd PLT this year because of my companies relationship with AA. I want to maintain PLT next year, and I should be able to do so with my international travel + maybe a few domestic flights (I do wish AA had more flights out DEN!).
Now as I said, I am new to the travel game. My short-term goal is I want to take the wife to Paris next spring for a vacation. I plan on staying at a Marriot, the Champs-Elysee is nice from what I've heard here. To that end, I just signed up for and received the Marriot visa (the top-end one with 15 nights + bonus). All my stays at Marriot are now paid for on that card, and I was given a $25K credit limit. I currently charge my other travel (tickets, car rental, etc) to a company Amex charge card, but I want to stop using that as Amex MR is not as good as the other programs out there. I also want to start working on AA LT GLD/PLT, so I want to maximize AA miles from rewards programs. Further, I am spoiled now, and want to take the vacation trip next year flying in business instead of coach, so I have even more reason to accumulate AA miles.
My credit profile is very good. I just pulled my Equifax and TU scores from myFico.com, and got a 755 from TU and 781 from Equifax. Both EQ and TU show no inquiries, but my Marriot card I just received is not on it so I expect that next month my score might go down a bit because I added the Marriot card. Credit utilization is 18%, though that will go down to zero this month after I pay off all the cards, so that should offset some of the loss I will take due to the Marriot card. I will also cancel some unused cards. I have ~60% equity on my house with less than $100K remaining on the loan, just paid off a home-equity loan last month, and we bought a new car in Jan. for the wife with 20% down (financed $30K @2.9%). I am 13 years at the current job. Summary: I have a car payment and a house payment, total combined of those 2 payments is less than 1 paycheck, and the credit cards will all be paid off in 2 weeks.
Now after reading the forums, it appears that the best card in general is the Amex SPG card. Not only can I use it for *wood stays, but I can also transfer to AA for miles at 1.25:1 (when including the bonus for transferring 20K miles). So I want to apply for and start using that card, however, from what I've read, Amex is giving very low CL's ($2-$3K) for new card members.
So the question is: is there anything I can do before applying for the Amex SPG that will help maximize my credit limit? I do plan to start canceling the unused cards, but how long does it take after canceling before it shows on the credit report? Will canceling these cards and applying for new ones show up as a negative, or have no impact? Should we cancel the store cards as well (Penny's, Macy's, etc..?) What's the optimal # of cards to have? Will canceling a card with a high limit hurt me because my total available credit goes down? Is there anything that will set off red flags to Amex prior to applying? I did just receive the new card from Marriot in Sept., so will applying for the Amex card so soon set off red flags? Oddly enough, the Marriot card is not on the reports yet, so should I apply now or wait until after I pay off all my cards in a few weeks (which would require waiting until next month and therefore the new Marriot card would be on the report)? Any advice? I basically want to use the Amex SPG to charge all of my personal and business expenses, but a $2K limit wouldn't even cover my airfare to Europe for my business travel, so I need to maximize the limit that Amex will give when I do apply. Ideally, at least $10K.
thanks in advance
Oct 12, 2009, 10:09 am
#2
Join Date: May 1998
Posts: 6,790
Wow! Let's see if I can help with some of the questions.
First of all, you say you're interested in maximizing AA miles both to redeem next year and to build up to liftime Gold (1 million) or Platinum. You may want to look at some of the Citicard threads on this forum, since you can get good bonuses by signing up for Citi AA cards (e.g., 25K bonus for Citi AA MasterCard, 25K for Citi AA Visa, and 25K for Citi AA AMEX) and indeed some folks "churn" those cards, applying for new accounts every 90 days or so after earning the bonus from the card they've just received.
Second, you ask about getting a Starwood AMEX with a reasonable line of credit. I'd suggest you check out the AMEX forum, since this issue is discussed there frequently. One way some have used is, if you already have any AMEX cards, after you open your Starwood AMEX account, ask to have some of the credit line on your other AMEX cards moved to the SPG AMEX. In your case, though, your FICO is high and you have a good credit history (as I understand your explanation about mortgage, HEL, and car payments), so you might get a reasonable line of credit on the SPG AMEX anyway, and if you don't a telephone call to AMEX explaining about your travel and that you're moving it from your company AMEX to your personal AMEX may persuade them to raise it.
One last thought: You say you plan to cancel some "unused" cards. The general rule is that cancelling cards will not help your credit rating, and indeed may hurt it in two particulars:
- (a) it reduces your total available credit, which has the effect of raising the percentage of your available credit that you're using (i.e. - if you have $50,000 in available credit combined on all your cards and have charged $5,000 against your cards, you're using 10% of your available credit, no big thing; if you now cancel $25,000 in cards, your credit utilization on the $5,000 in charges now rises to 20%, which can have an impact on your FICO score).
- (b) if your "unused" cards are ones you've had a while, cancelling them can lower the length of your credit history, which also affects your FICO score; you should avoid cancelling your oldest cards, all other things equal (i.e., the oldest card doesn't have a high annual fee). If your oldest card does have a high annual fee, you might contact the issuer to see if they can convert it to a no-fee (or low-fee) card so you can keep that credit history.
Good luck!
First of all, you say you're interested in maximizing AA miles both to redeem next year and to build up to liftime Gold (1 million) or Platinum. You may want to look at some of the Citicard threads on this forum, since you can get good bonuses by signing up for Citi AA cards (e.g., 25K bonus for Citi AA MasterCard, 25K for Citi AA Visa, and 25K for Citi AA AMEX) and indeed some folks "churn" those cards, applying for new accounts every 90 days or so after earning the bonus from the card they've just received.
Second, you ask about getting a Starwood AMEX with a reasonable line of credit. I'd suggest you check out the AMEX forum, since this issue is discussed there frequently. One way some have used is, if you already have any AMEX cards, after you open your Starwood AMEX account, ask to have some of the credit line on your other AMEX cards moved to the SPG AMEX. In your case, though, your FICO is high and you have a good credit history (as I understand your explanation about mortgage, HEL, and car payments), so you might get a reasonable line of credit on the SPG AMEX anyway, and if you don't a telephone call to AMEX explaining about your travel and that you're moving it from your company AMEX to your personal AMEX may persuade them to raise it.
One last thought: You say you plan to cancel some "unused" cards. The general rule is that cancelling cards will not help your credit rating, and indeed may hurt it in two particulars:
- (a) it reduces your total available credit, which has the effect of raising the percentage of your available credit that you're using (i.e. - if you have $50,000 in available credit combined on all your cards and have charged $5,000 against your cards, you're using 10% of your available credit, no big thing; if you now cancel $25,000 in cards, your credit utilization on the $5,000 in charges now rises to 20%, which can have an impact on your FICO score).
- (b) if your "unused" cards are ones you've had a while, cancelling them can lower the length of your credit history, which also affects your FICO score; you should avoid cancelling your oldest cards, all other things equal (i.e., the oldest card doesn't have a high annual fee). If your oldest card does have a high annual fee, you might contact the issuer to see if they can convert it to a no-fee (or low-fee) card so you can keep that credit history.
Good luck!