Why did I get a pre-approval in the mail for a card I already have?

[sakhalin070]

Discover sent me a pre-approval offer for the Discover More, despite the fact that I already have the card. :/

[snowkitty]

I got one too....shortly after I opened my Discover More card.....I think it just crossed in the mail somehow

[trumpet-205]

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@sakhalin070 wrote:

Discover sent me a pre-approval offer for the Discover More, despite the fact that I already have the card. :/

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That is because these pre-approval, pre-selected, or whatever you want to call it carries no meaning. The way they work is that say BofA ask TU to produce a list of people that meets a generic condition (say never BK in the last 5 years). TU in return produce the list and BofA mails the offer to every person on the list. No actual credit check is done.

[rudy0720]

I have gotten 5 "Hurry, you are Pre-approved through December 2012" in the last 2 weeks and received my Discover More card before Thanskgiving. Guess it takes them time to update their system

[snowkitty]

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@trumpet-205 wrote:

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@sakhalin070 wrote:

Discover sent me a pre-approval offer for the Discover More, despite the fact that I already have the card. :/

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That is because these pre-approval, pre-selected, or whatever you want to call it carries no meaning. The way they work is that say BofA ask TU to produce a list of people that meets a generic condition (say never BK in the last 5 years). TU in return produce the list and BofA mails the offer to every person on the list. No actual credit check is done.

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Are you sure about that? I got a preapproval from American Express yesterday and I saw on my credit where they soft pulled me. I am fairly new to this so I am not sure how it all works. I got a preapproval from fingerhut and capital one and they are both showing as sp's. Citi sent me a preapproval but they have never checked my credit outside of the gas card I have from them. So can some preapprovals mean more than others?

[codimom]

I got my Discover in October... I got the alert about it posting on my reports yesterday.  I think thats probably why I was still getting the "pre approved' letters.

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@rudy0720 wrote:

I have gotten 5 "Hurry, you are Pre-approved through December 2012" in the last 2 weeks and received my Discover More card before Thanskgiving. Guess it takes them time to update their system

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[trumpet-205]

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@snowkitty wrote:

Are you sure about that? I got a preapproval from American Express yesterday and I saw on my credit where they soft pulled me. I am fairly new to this so I am not sure how it all works. I got a preapproval from fingerhut and capital one and they are both showing as sp's. Citi sent me a preapproval but they have never checked my credit outside of the gas card I have from them. So can some preapprovals mean more than others?

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No actual credit check is done. It would have cost them too much money to conduct credit check on every candidate.