aba_bab

Great - thanks for the clarification.

aba_bab

One more question about people's experiences on this forum - as briefly mentioned, I applied for my first two SPG Amex cards a month ago - not sure why it took me so long - I remember applying last year but got declined and I had no clue why - I had thought that they underwriting standards might have been uber exclusive or maybe required 800+ credit scores (how naive of me).

Eventually - I reapplied for the 2 SPG cards and was initially declined for my first application again, but then called them and asked for a reassessment - turns out my name is such a common name, that they needed to do further fraud checks and both got approved within a week of each other.

Now for my question - I feel that the credit limits approved to me were pretty generous (14K/20K) - especially since they originally didn't even approve me - keeping in mind that I intend on applying for one of the charge cards in ~1-2 months from now, should I consider reducing the credit limits on the Amex's that i have currently? Does anyone have any experience where Amex declined them because of already too much credit available (not utilized) to them via their amex cards?

Basically i can proactively do this - or wait and see if i ever get that kind of a response, then I could call them up and ask them to reallocate the existing lines...

Anyways.. just curious if anyone has any thoughts on this..

JJonahJ

Congrats on getting your SPG applications approved. Going forward you should make sure to add in your existing SPG AMEX credit card number during the phase of the application that asks if you're an existing Amex cardholder, and this will help to better identify you to Amex. If you time it well, Amex might even use a prior credit enquiry and save you a hard pull.

From our experience we've found Amex to be one of the easiest banks to get approval for our cards, w.r.t. applying for many cards within short timeframe of each other (1 month, 3 months, 6 months), as well as for approval for family members who have young credit histories, so it's definitely not a must to have pristine credit profiles/scores, certainly not 800+.

The limits that Amex gave you on your SPG CREDIT cards were very generous indeed. We've seen first-time Amex cardholders with a paltry $1000 initial limit, which then required some planned self-action to increase the limits with their online request tool, and without addition pulls at Transunion, to bump it up to now $9,000, in under a year.

The MR cards (Personal/Business Golds/Plats) are CHARGE cards, and they don't issue these to you with a published limit, you'd have to guess it to begin with. But Amex gives you the online "Spending Power" tool so that you can guess/test the limits with mock transactions, twice a day. We've often seen our initial MR card limits at a mere $3500 upon activation, but over time the spending power tool would show that the limit had increased to $5,000-$7,000 within a week or two, and then to $35,000 after about 6 months of good responsible card usage and balance payments.

Amex won't reallocate / consolidate the limits from the CREDIT cards (your SPG cards) with the MR CHARGE cards, but they will shift limits across their CREDIT cards. I've held up to 6 Amex cards concurrently and I don't believe they restricted my new applications because of the high combined limits. TD, MBNA, CIBC on the other hand, yes...but a quick phone conversation to lower existing card limits would resolve those stalled new applications whenever the total combined limit within that bank tallied up to be too high.

pointsbrah

How are peoples experiences with AMEX doing hard credit pulls if you're an existing card member? Some DPs on reddit suggest majority of the time AMEX doesn't do hard pulls. Planning to apply for a few more cards, hoping to time it right.

JJonahJ

Those are likely just blanket statements and for sure just a relatively recent 'finding'. They are going to pull from Transunion for your very first Amex application, but thereafter they may or may not. For my first few years of churning Amex cards at a feverish pace, I avoided 1 or 2 credit pulls on Transunion, which were for a second application done within 60-90 days of a prior one, but not ALL of my rapid new applications would be shielded from a new pull. I have continued to apply for Amex cards but at the same time I have not had an Amex pull since 2016, and these recent applications were spaced well more than 90 days apart.

Sure, the less hard pulls on your file, the better, as we used to think that with reduced enquiries it would improve your chances for approval for the next new card. But, with responsible usage/payments of your card accounts, your score will eventually recover. Meanwhile you'll find that just adding a bunch of multiple new tradelines to your burueau files can be more shocking to Equifax/Transunion algorithms than a new incremental pull, especially if you have a thin credit profile/history.

aba_bab

Wondering if anyone knows from experience- I got the SPG Amex right before the changes happened (I.e 20k points after 1k spend in 3 months).

one thought that occurred to me for which I can’t find the answer too- but do the Canadian SPG Amex cards not give you the 2 night/ 5 stay towards your elite status like the US Amex SPG cards do?

prmetime

Not at this time.

Schweden

I'm thinking about opening a supplementary card for my Amex personal Plat.

Does anyone know if Priority Pass membership is also given to the supplementary card and the terms if so (e.g., unlimited free visits, 1 guest, etc.)? Also, would the $200 travel credit be usable to book a flight for the supplementary cardholder instead of only the primary one?

Thanks.

prmetime

Only the primary holder receives the Priority Pass membership and travel credit.

Low Roller

Are you sure about priority pass? I have the business platinum and it looks like supp. card holders can enroll in PP. The welcome page says " Business Platinum Basic and Platinum Supplementary Cardmember(s) (“Cardmember”) that are enrolled members of Priority PassTM (“PP membership”) have complimentary access to airport lounges participating in the Priority Pass program worldwide."

Toronto1970

prmetime

Could you please provide a reference? I believe the OP was speaking of the Personal Platinum.

Toronto1970

I can only speak from personal experience. I have the personal platinum card and my husband has a supplemental card on the account. He was able to request and receive his own Priority Pass card.

Edit: Dug up the package that came with the card to show confirmation in writing (there is similar language for the Hilton benefits, etc. The $200 travel credit is clear that it's only for the primary card holder)

prmetime

Thanks - I appreciate the information and the correction. I must have missed this information (or it didn't come into play) when I had the card last year.

Schweden

Thanks for the info! Looks like a supplementary card isn't a bad deal then. Without the lounge benefit, the only point would be the insurances and priority benefits at Pearson.

As for the $200 travel credit, I was just curious as to whether the sole $200 credit allotted annually to the card is bookable for the supplementary cardholder. It irks me a little that I can't use it to book travel for others like I can with Aeroplan points as I personally don't see much value in booking through Amex travel services.