AMEX Free FICO Score

AMEX provides free access to your FICO score, specifically the Experian FICO Score 8. One of the best strategies for luxury travel is earning transferable points such as Chase Ultimate Rewards via the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Ink Business Preferred, or AMEX Membership Rewards points via the no annual fee AMEX Blue Business Plus and transferring these as needed to airline frequent flyer programs to reserve international business class or first class awards. These provide the best ROI for credit card points, since redemption value can be 5-12 cents per point redeemed, compared to about 1 cent per point when redeemed for gift cards, cash back, Amazon purchases, etc. Redeeming credit card points for flights gives you a greater budget for hotels: the best luxury hotels, such as Cheval Blanc, Four Seasons, Oetker Collection, Rosewood Hotels, etc. can't be reserved with points; neither can superyacht charters.

It's key, however, to maintain a high credit score when applying for new credit cards, since travel rewards cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve require a high score. And of course balances should always be paid in full; it's never worth carrying any credit card debt given high interest rates, which quickly negate any rewards earned.

After logging in, you'll be prompted to accept terms before viewing your Experian FICO score:

As noted, AMEX (and other credit card issuers) can use their own scoring (“American Express and other lenders may use a different FICO Score version than FICO Score 8, or another type of credit score altogether, and other information to make credit decisions”) but Chase, AMEX, Citi, Wells Fargo and Bank of America pull predominantly from Experian as part of their credit check when you apply for a new credit card.

As noted in our post Understand How Your Credit Score Works to Maximize Credit Card Rewards the FICO score is based on several components, including your payment history, amount of debt, length of credit history, amount of new credit and credit mix. For example, the Amount of Debt has a 30% impact on the FICO score. To improve this aspect of one's score, it's important to keep utilization low. It helps to have multiple cards with high credit limits, and if you have high spend in any given month, consider paying it off immediately, even before your due date.