It has long been know that it’s possible to request a credit limit increase from American Express without a hard pull being done. When you request this increase, American Express is incredibly generous. They will usually approve you for an increase of three times your current credit limit (e.g if your credit limit is $2,000 you can usually get it increased to $6,000).
There are a number of rules that need to be followed when you make this request and one of these rules has recently changed. In the past you needed to wait until your credit card had been open for at least 60 days before you would be approved for a credit limit increase.
It’s now possible to get approved for a credit limit increase immediately, although you must have at least one other American Express issued card that has been open for at least six months.Â
Here is a full list of the updated rules:
- You must wait a minimum of 60 days after a card is opened before requesting a credit limit increase from American Express, unless you have another American Express issued credit card that has been open for at least six months
- You must wait a period of six months in between credit limit increases from American Express. This applies across all of your American Express cards.
- If you’re denied, you must wait 90 days before applying for an increase again
- If you successfully receive a credit limit increase you can apply for another one after six months. In general this is much more difficult to receive than the first increase unless your income has gone up significantly.
If you’d like more information on how to make this credit limit increase request and tips for getting approved, I’d strongly recommend reading our detailed how to guide on this. Thanks to all of the readers that let me know about this change, I confirmed this change with American Express as well.
