How do pre-selected offers work?

[Ortz33__]

Hello!  Just wondering, are pre-selected offers softs?  I was mailed my first one since starting to rebuild in 2008, and it was from a major bank that I actually have a baddy with, so I'm wondering how I can even be "pre-selected" with THEM in particular?

[dalebb]

read the fine print,,, its BS,, u still have to apply

[LilloEsquilo]

In this case pre-selected means they got a listing from the CRAs of potential customers who met certain criteria typically score who might be a match for their products.

In this case having burned them recently my suggestion to you would be to forget about it. To apply will only result in an inquiry and hard pull or pulls and a ding to your credit if not worse.

I had the same thing happen with both Discover and AMEX. I had burned both and got "Pre-selected" offers in the mail from both. I made the mistake of applying to both. Discover told me flat out because I had burned them in the past I would NEVER be allowed to get another card from them, while AMEX gave other reasons but later because I applied for a corporate AMEX through my company told me at that point that I was blacklisted with them.

So I would advise you to shred it and forget it ever came. There is a small, one in 100,000 or so chance you might slip through the cracks, but a MUCH larger chance you won't and it will only be bad. Best to just forget about it.

[Anonymous]

Yeah I think they just buy reports from the CRA's, then have some criteria like score above a certain number, a certain number of baddies, a certain length of history, etc and all the people who meet their basic criteria they send out the pre approved offers.

I once got a pre approval mailing for the AMEX premier rewards Gold card. I knew I wouldn't have a chance because my history is relatively short and I doubt my income would be high enough.

[Ortz33__]

What i forgot to mention was that the "baddy" is no longer on my reports......

[LilloEsquilo]

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@Ortz33__ wrote:
What i forgot to mention was that the "baddy" is no longer on my reports......

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May not matter, they keep internal records which is how they know who is blacklisted by them. I don't know if you are blacklisted, of course, but I can say from personal experience I've gotten those mails from companies that I am blacklisted by.