If you’re looking for a new credit card, a pre-approval is a good idea. It can reduce the impact to your credit score as the issuer has already screened you as a potential customer. The checks that are required when you apply for a loan can lower your credit score by one to five points. This impact can last for six months to a full year. A pre-approval will reduce or eliminate the impact of a “soft pull” on your credit score.
A pre-approval is when a financial institution tells you in advance that you will be approved for a credit card. This lets you know which cards you have a good chance of being approved for before you apply. This means that applying for the credit card will not result in a negative mark on your credit score, and you may even be approved for the card. A soft credit pull will not have any impact on your credit score. If you’re looking for ways to build credit, you might want to consider getting a prepaid debit or credit card. These can be a good option if you’re having trouble getting approved for a traditional credit card.
The problem with pre-approvals is that you would traditionally just get them without any say in the matter. You had to wait and hope a bank would send you a credit card in the mail. Recent years have brought change. There are now some ways you can get pre-approvals for yourself. There are four great ways to do this.
1) Check Directly For Offers From Major Banks
You can now check with many large banks to see if you are pre-approved for any products. You can do this by going to their websites and you don’t need an account. After inputting your name, address, and Social Security number, you will be provided with a list of credit cards for which you are eligible.
You can do this online with major credit card issuers like American Express, Capital One, Credit One, and Discover. You can also do this with major banks like Bank of America, Chase, Citi, and US Bank. And finally, you can do this with starter/credit repair cards like Indigo, Milestone Gold, and USALLIANCE Financial Throwback Visa, and Green Dot Platinum Visa.
This search method will not usually show you cards that you are eligible for through a partner bank, or those that offer loyalty benefits through a particular chain. 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 on the list of options. This next trick will be more useful if you want a card of that type.
2) Use The “Shopping Cart Trick”
This involves going to an online store that has the card you want, adding something to your cart, and then checking out. Many large stores offer credit cards that are co-branded with the store’s name. These cards can be used at the store and sometimes other places as well. The store may create a credit card offer that is pre-approved before you enter your payment information.
There are a few conditions that need to be met for this to work. In order to get the best deals while shopping, you should create an account with the store and be logged in while shopping. It is also beneficial to have some prior customer history with the store. Make sure your ad blocker is not blocking any connections from the site. The offers usually come as a pop-up ad sent from a different server. The mailing address you enter when creating your account must match the one listed on your credit report. The reason these tricks work is because the store can do a soft pull based only on your name and address.
There are some things to be aware of that could limit what you can do. Some stores will only offer you their in-house card in an attempt to get you to spend more money. This means that the card can only be used to make purchases at stores that belong to the same company. If you’re trying to improve your credit, using a store credit card can help. However, it does restrict where you can shop. Other credit repair methods may include disputing errors on your credit report, paying down your debts, and improving your payment history.
However, these store branded cards are not entirely useless, as some of them automatically upgrade to a regular Visa after a certain period. Target is offering a $300 store card that can be upgraded to a regular Visa after a year of no missed payments.
This means that the credit limit on these cards is usually quite low. This means that even if you are only applying for a store credit card, the store may still request your full social security number, which would result in a hard credit inquiry.
If you don’t have a regular store you shop at, you can try this trick at Walmart’s website. With a store card, you can usually buy low-priced items like food and hygiene items until it upgrades to a Mastercard. This usually happens after 6 to 12 months.
3) Know How To Work Cardmatch
Cardmatch is a company that helps people find credit offers that they are likely to be approved for. The service is free. The service is owned by creditcards.com, but it is located on many different websites as independent website publishers partner with Cardmatch.
The website is supposed to allow users to input their personal information and receive a list of all the pre-approved offers they qualify for from different banks. The company partners with various banks and lenders, including American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Credit Unions (local), Discover, store branded cards, First Premier Bank, and many other lenders. This partnership allows the company to offer a free service to its customers.
That’s not how it works. Cardmatch does not provide pre-approval offers that require a “soft pull” of your credit. The website looks at the standard requirements for a bunch of credit cards and tells you which ones you qualify for or can be pre-approved for. It doesn’t provide the same level of assurance 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.
Although Cardmatch may not be as helpful as it first appears, it can still be useful if you know how to use it effectively. It’s a good way to get an overview of which cards you might be eligible for without spending a lot of time visiting different websites. After looking at the cards, you can see if there is another place you can go to get pre-approval.
Even though Cardmatch does not guarantee pre-approvals, it sometimes generates offers that are not available from the same company’s website. If you have good credit and a steady income, you’re in a good position to get a loan. There are many options available if you need help consolidating your debt or getting financial assistance.
This means that if you are willing to put in the extra effort, you may be able to find better deals than usual. An exclusive offer for an American Express Platinum with 100,000 bonus points was recently available to those who met initial spending limits. The standard offer is much lower, with only half that number of points available. If you change some of the information you originally entered on the site, you may get different results. For example, anonymous browsing or going to a lower-level offer on a bank’s website and then coming back to Cardmatch can give you new suggestions.
If you think you meet a card’s minimum requirements, Cardmatch can get you better terms in return for a hard pull.
4) Signal Your Interest To Credit Card Companies
If you do not want to receive promotional offers from a company, you must take action to opt out or unsubscribe from these offers. Otherwise, the company is within its legal rights to send you promotional offers. If you do not opt out, you are automatically enrolled. However, people sometimes forget to opt out and are automatically enrolled.
The first step is to check with the FTC to see if you are in good standing. If you do not want to receive any credit card offers, you can opt out by visiting the website or calling the credit card company. In other words, it is not uncommon for people to visit the website and check their status. You can join again at any time if you have left. You can stop getting prescreened credit and insurance offers by visiting the link below.
If you are interested in a particular bank or store’s card, it is often helpful to create an account with them. This gets you noticed by them, and you may be added to their list of people to review for offers. A good customer history with a company can help you get better service from them. You can also check your online settings to see if you accidentally said you didn’t want to get promotional offers from them.
A Few Final Things To Consider
If you are planning on applying for multiple credit cards, be aware of the “5/24 rule” that some banks have implemented. This rule can cause you to be automatically rejected for a credit card if you have applied for too many cards in the recent past. This rule began with Chase, but has expanded to other credit card issuers and national banks. If you have opened more than five credit cards in the last two years, you will not be eligible for any pre-screened offers. This means that although you may be able to get a credit card with a regular application and hard pull, you will not be able to get any offers from a soft pull alone. Think carefully about what you want and make a plan to get it.
Being pre-qualified means the issuer has looked at your credit score and thinks you might be a good candidate for the card, but it’s not a guarantee. An “invitation to apply” means that you are not guaranteed to get the card, but the issuer thinks you might be a good candidate. Being “pre-qualified” for a loan or credit card means that the lender has looked at your credit history and other financial information and decided that you are likely to be approved for a loan or credit card.