I am currently on my flight from Seattle to Hong Kong and had some down time and an internet connection, so I thought I would give American Express another shot.
Over the last year I have been working on improving my credit profile as I was a bit foolish in my youth and have managed to slowly move away from secured credit cards, decrease utilization, and increase my FICO score's by 100+ points.
Back in February 2016 I tested the waters with Amex and found a pre-approval offer on their site for a Delta Gold, Platinum, and Everyday. I knew it was too good to be true as I had a few collections in my EX profile, high utilization, and a low Ex of 616. After applying for the Delta Gold card I received the 7-10 day message which then became a denial after a week. When I received the letter is stated; low credit score, degrogitory public records (i.e. collections), and high utilization.
Fast forward to June 2016, and I was able to PFD 2 collection accounts, have 1 removed, bring down my utilization from 91% to 28%, and increase my score 20 points. While I believed that my score was still low for Amex I was able to clean up all of the other factors they listed and thought why not give it a shot. So 6.5 hrs into my flight I submitted the first application for the Amex Green Charge Account. I figured it would be a 50/50 shot so after hitting submit I waited an agonizing 4.5 minutes, since the in-flight Internet is slow as a snail, then magically it said "Approved"!!!!
I was ecstatic as I have been waiting years to re-join the amex family. After reading that you can submit a Charge Card App and a Revolver App from the same HP I went ahead and submitted another app for the Delta Gold which was also instantly approved for $1,000.00.
So it appears that there is no hard and fast rule for American Express. As some people say you need at least a 660, others that get declined with scores in the 700's and me with a low 636.
Current Stats
EX 636
AAoA: 2 Yrs
Ex Inq: 11
Utl: 28%
Total Credit $14,600