How true are approval odds on 'recommended cards' from CreditKarma

[Anonymous]

Good morning, 

I am new to this forum, I've been reading some posts for the past week and I finally decided to post. 

I am a member of Credit Karma and I was looking at the 'Recommended credit cards' and the approval odds are supposedly based on my credit score.

How true are these approval odds provided by Credit Karma?

I don't want to apply and get stuck with another hard inquiry and being denied for the card.

My scores from Credit Karma are TU: 683, EQ: 696. And from credit.com, my EQ: 714. 

When I just leased my car over the weekend, they pulled my credit score from TU I believe and it was 735.

So I am somewhere in those ranges. If anyone has had experience with Credit Karma recommendations and applying, please let me know! Thanks!

[dragontears]

CK recommendation are primarily advertising, that doesn't mean you won't qualify it just means you need to research the cards and their approval criteria.
Personally I prefer finding cards that match my spend then working on my profile until I qualify instead of apping for cards just because I qualify for it

[Xistaben2]

Finding the actual preapproval links for each card (if they have it) is a much safer bet.  I am not convinced that the ads on CK are even close to on point.

[Anonymous]

Thats what I figured - that it was mostly advertising.

I am mostly interested in cash back rewards, as I don't really travel often. I don't really need any balance transfers, but I want to diversify my credit portfolio and increase my total credit available to me. With my score and some hard inquiries on my credit, I am slightly apprehensive though about applying again. But I find that many of the pre-approvals or pre-qualifications are not always helpful either. What is your take on that?

[Xistaben2]

The trick with prequalification is to check the verbiage carefully.  "Pre-selected, Pre-qualified, Pre-approved" tend to be actual prequalifications.  Phrases like "we think you'd like" or "we have selected these cards for yadda yadda" are more or less teasers for a cold app, which you may not want to do unless you are confident about your profile.

Also a big give away to know if it is a prequalification or not is look at the APR they send you.  If it is a set APR like 13.14% or something, its a safer bet.  That typically means they SP'd your credit profile and have a general idea of what they want to offer you.  If the APR is a range, like 13.14%-19.56% - its not as good of a chance because the creditor is more or less guessing.

If that makes sense.

[takeshi74]

CK isn't any more aware of the specific approval criteria for various products than we are.  At best they can correlate but remember that correlation and causation are not the same thing.

Don't rely on approval odds.  Leanr to assess your own reports.  I'm not saying you'll know where the line is for a give product but you need to be able to spot the issues with your credit reports and address them.  Then apply when your reports are in good shape.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I don't want to apply and get stuck with another hard inquiry and being denied for the card. 

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Inquiries are a small factor despite the obsession over them.  They can have a bigger impact for those with thin profiles and/or issues.  However, in such cases they are a symptom and not the actual problem.  If 1 hard pull is a problem for you then you have bigger issues in your credit profile that you need to work on.

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LT13 wrote: 

My scores from Credit Karma are TU: 683, EQ: 696. And from credit.com, my EQ: 714. 

When I just leased my car over the weekend, they pulled my credit score from TU I believe and it was 735. 

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You always need to consider the specific scoring model as well when reference scores as well as the relevance of a model/CRA combo to a given product.  Unless you're applying for products where a TU or EQ VantageScore 3.0 is used then your CK scores are not relevant.  It's never just about score but if you want to know where you stand score-wise with a given product then you need to know the model & CRA used in the decision for that product and then go pull that specific score.

You can use resources such as the Credit Pulls Database (Google to find) and existing threads here.

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@dragontears wrote:
CK recommendation are primarily advertising

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This.  CK gets referral fees.  Always consider your sources.

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@Xistaben2 wrote:

Finding the actual preapproval links for each card (if they have it) is a much safer bet.

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Preapps are just marketing as well.  While they are based on soft pulls there are not a guarantee either.  Do not rely on preapps, bets, etc.  Evaluate your own reports.  Use your needs/wants to find products that suit you.  Then apply for them when you credit is in shape.

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@Anonymous wrote:

I am mostly interested in cash back rewards, as I don't really travel often. I don't really need any balance transfers, but I want to diversify my credit portfolio and increase my total credit available to me. With my score and some hard inquiries on my credit, I am slightly apprehensive though about applying again. But I find that many of the pre-approvals or pre-qualifications are not always helpful either. What is your take on that?

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What does your credit profile look like?  Is your Payment History 100% and are your reports total clean and free of derogs?  Your revolving utililzation?  Number of accounts?  AAoA?  How many new accounts and how old are they?  How many inquiries and how old are they?

As for rewards -- where's the majority of your spend going?  Diversity is a plus but I wouldn't recommend using it as a primary reason.  Whether or not you can increase your total limits all depends on what your credit profile and income qualify for.

[Anonymous]

Payment history is 100%, no derogatory remarks, no collections. My UTI is about 8 or 9%. I have 6 accounts I believe, unfortunately I am newer to the credit world and my oldest is just a little over 2 years. My number of inquiries vary on the reporting agency but more than 5 on both.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Welcome to the forum It sounds like you have a nice profile maybe if you like cash back check out Citi to see if your prequaled for a dc, if not , maybe you can try for it. Just a thought. Agree with above post, CK is basically good for keeping an eye on your credit reports, i take their recommendations with a grain of salt