Pre-approved for credit cards.
If you're looking for a new credit card, a pre-approval is a powerful tool that you should use whenever available as it can reduce the impact to your credit score as the issuer has already screened you as a potential customer. The mandatory checks on your credit when applying lower your score by one to five points each, an impact that can last from six months to a full year. Find how pre-approvals or qualifying for a credit card will reduce that impact if not eliminate it as well, as it may result in a “soft pull”.
Pre-approvals let you know in advance which cards will not reject you when you apply. At the very least, this saves you a fruitless "ding" on your credit from a rejected application, and at best some companies will approve you by doing a "soft pull" that doesn't hurt your credit at all. A soft pull of your credit will not even impact your score at all. Or you can also look into pre-paid debit or credit cards as another alternative to building credit.
The problem with pre-approvals is that traditionally there was no control over receiving them. You had to sit back and hope a bank sent you one in the mail. Things have changed in recent years, however. There are now some ways you can actively seek pre-approvals for yourself from Bank of America, Chase, Citi, store credit cards and other banks. These are four of the best methods.
1) Check directly for a per-qualfication offers from major credit card issuers
Many of the largest banks now allow you to check for credit card products for which you are pre-approved. You can do this through their websites, and you don't need an account with them. You just enter your name, primary address, and Social Security number to get a list of cards for which you're eligible.
These companies allow you to do this pre approval online:
- Major Credit Card Issuers -- American Express, Capital One, Credit One, Mastercard, Discover
- Major Banks -- Bank of America, Chase, Citi, US Bank
- Starter / Credit Repair Cards -- Indigo, Milestone Gold, USALLIANCE Financial Throwback Visa, Green Dot Platinum Visa
Keep in mind that this method often does not show you "co-branded" cards you are eligible for, or those where the bank partners with a particular chain to offer you loyalty benefits. This means that if say Bank of America has a co-branded card with a retailer like Home Depot, that credit card will not be shown to you. If you're after a card of that type, this next trick will be much more useful.
2) Use the "Shopping Cart Trick" for credit card qualification
This infamous trick involves going to an online store that has a co-branded or store-only card that you're after, putting something in the shopping cart, then proceeding to checkout. Stores such as Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, Lowes and many other national retailers offer co-branded credit cards. At the step just before entering your payment information, the store may generate a pre-approved offer for a credit card.
There are a few things that need to be in place for this to work. You'll need to create an account with the store to pre-qualify for the credit card and be logged in to it while shopping, and ideally, you'll have some prior customer history with them. You also need to make sure any ad blocker you may be running is allowing all connections from the site, as these offers usually come as a pop-up ad sent from a different server. Also, be sure that the mailing address you enter in the account matches the one listed on your credit report. The reason these tricks works is that the store can do a soft pull based solely on your name and address.
There are also some limitations to be aware of when pre-qualifying for a credit card this way. For example, some stores will only offer you their in-house card with this trick. That means the card can only be used for shopping at their stores. While using that store credit card can be a way for you to start and/or improve your credit over time, it of course does limit how you can shop. Find other credit repair improvement methods.
However, these store branded cards are not entirely useless, as some of them automatically upgrade to a regular Visa after a certain period (usually six to 12 months). Many stores also offer Bank of America, Synchrony or Chase pre - approved credit cards as well under a generic name. For example, Target has offered a $300 store card that upgrades to a $3,000 regular Visa after a year of not missing any payments.
The credit cards that were approved in advance and that are offered this way also tend to have low limits (at least initially). In addition, please keep in mind that you may still be subject to a "hard pull" if the store asks for your full social security number during the application process.
If you don't have a particular store you shop at regularly, this trick has been known to work at Walmart's website, where you can at least use the store card for low-priced staples like food and hygiene items until it upgrades to a Mastercard (usually after 6 to 12 months).
3) Know how to work cardmatch
Cardmatch is, at least on paper, a centralized clearinghouse for pre-approved credit offers. It is a free service. It is located on many different websites as independent website publishers partner with Cardmatch, however the service is owned by creditcards.com.
You're supposed to be able to enter your personal information and get a list of all the pre-approved offers you qualify for from all of the different banks. The company and free service partners with various banks and lenders, including but not limited too American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Credit Unions (local) Discover, store branded cards, First Premier Bank and many other lenders.
That's not the way it works, however. Cardmatch doesn't hook you up with "soft pull" pre-approval offers. Instead, it checks your information against the standard known requirements for a bunch of cards, then spits back the credit cards for which you theoretically qualify or can be pre-approved. It doesn't give you the same "in" with the credit card companies that a soft-pull pre-approval does; you'll still have to make a hard-pull standard application for most of the cards it tries to link you to.
Though Cardmatch isn't as helpful as it initially seems, it can still be useful if you know how to work it properly to get a pre qualification for the credit card you want. For example, it's a good lead generator to quickly get a summary of cards you might qualify for without having to spend a whole day visiting a bunch of different websites. You can then see if those cards have a pre-approval process you can pursue elsewhere.
And even though they aren't guaranteed pre-approvals, Cardmatch sometimes generates offers that can't be found anywhere else, even directly from the same company's website. That is especially true if you have good credit and reasonably high and stable income. You can even find such options as personal loans for debt consolidation or financial help.
 If you're willing to take a hard pull of your credit history, you might find some offers you can't get anywhere else. For example, there was recently an exclusive offer for an American Express Platinum with 100,000 bonus points upon meeting initial spending limits; the standard offer is closer to half that. Little tweaks to the information you enter into the site can sometimes trigger new proposals; for example, switching in and out of anonymous browsing, or proceeding through a lower-level offer to a bank's website and then returning to Cardmatch to refresh your list of suggestions.
Though it doesn't offer guaranteed pre-approvals, if you are reasonably certain you meet a card's minimum requirements, Cardmatch can at least get you much better terms sometimes in return for that hard pull.
4) Signal your interest to credit card companies
If you aren't "opted in" to promotional offers with a company, they can't legally send a pre-approved credit card to you. You're usually opted in by default, but people sometimes opt out without realizing it while shopping or are opted out from some forgotten previous interaction with the bank.
The first step is to check your overall status with the FTC. You're allowed to opt out of credit card offers entirely, though it's hard to do it by accident as you have to visit their website or call them to do so. Still, it's not unheard of, and it only takes a few seconds to visit their website and check your status. If you somehow opted out, you can opt back in at any time. Find how to opt out here https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0148-prescreened-credit-and-insurance-offers or here https://www.optoutprescreen.com.
If there is a bank or store with a card you are particularly interested in pre qualifying, it often helps to create an account with them. That gets you on their radar, potentially adding you to their list of people to pre-screen for offers. Having a good customer history with them certainly doesn't hurt. You can also check your online settings to make sure you didn't inadvertently opt out of receiving promotional offers from them.
A few final things to consider
Before you go on a run of pre-approved card applications, be aware of the "5/24 rule" that some banks are now applying. This rule started with Chase but has spread to several other issuers as well as national banks. The 5/24 policy automatically disqualifies you from any pre-screened offers if you've opened more than five cards of any type in the last two years. You might still get a card with a standard application and hard pull, but you aren't getting any offers off the soft pull alone. So choose and plan wisely.
It's also important to understand the difference between a "pre-approval" or "pre-qualification" and an "invitation to apply." Being pre-approved means that you will get the card if you accept the offer. Being “pre-qualified” possibly means this, depending on how that individual company uses the term (in other words, there is no one set definition or industry meaning for “pre-qualification”) An invitation to apply means merely that the company has taken a cursory look at your available information, and thinks you may fit the profile of a successful applicant, but there are no guarantees, and a hard pull is likely going to be required to apply.
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