Amex after BK

[keitheii]

I had a $5K CO with Amex back in 2002, and tried over the years to get an account with them but was always declined. To make matters worse, due to a long bout of unemployment back in 2015 I had to file for BK again, but wound up settling with my creditors on my own (my attorney was of no help) and dismissed the BK. I've been rebuilding my credit ever since, carry low debt ($800), credit score of 724, 0 late payments. My line of work requires some travel and occasional expenses that I get reimbursed for. An Amex would have been convenient, but I was blacklisted and would get declined without a hard pull. My credit monitoring services indicate my "total amount of credit" is lower than average and suggests additional credit to help raise my score. I don't need yet another Visa or MC, so I would check the prequalify pages of Discover and Amex just to see if anything popped up, but I always received "Sorry, no offers are available for you at this time". For some reason, that changed a few weeks ago. I started seeing Amex and Discover offers. I applied for an Amex Gold last night and was actually approved, I was shocked. Not sure why they like me now, but even after burning them in a BK 18 years ago they let me back in. Just wanted to let everyone know you can get an Amex again, even after burning them.. it just takes time.

I'm not sure as to the accuracy of what I read, but I did read after the fact that having an Amex doesn't really help my "low" line of credit since it doesn't have an actual credit limit reported to the bureaus.. But I do need it for work (they don't supply them) and I'll definitely make use of the membership rewards, and of course pay it on time.

[justbroke]

Amex seems to take somewhere around 20 years to forgive and forget. They do have revolving cards, like the Everyday Blue products. Yes, you may want to get a good Visa/MC but I might want to go through a credit union for those.

[shipo]

Good to know, AMEX got burned to the tune of $25,000 when I filed for Chapter 13 back in 2015; I have always heard you will N-E-V-E-R get another AMEX card unless you pay back the old balance in full. Give I travel a lot (or at least used to before COVID-19), and given the airline I do 90% of my travel on is Delta, being able to get a Delta SkyMiles AMEX would pay some significant dividends. I guess I have another 15+ years to go before I can reapply.