topic Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers in Credit Card Applications

Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 01:01:02 GMT

Last yr. in Feb. applied for a Citi American Airlines CC and was declined. I am now receiving CC offers from Citi in the mail since about Oct. I am trying to figure out if I am receiving these offers to apply because now I have a good chance at qualifying or if it's because I got on their list with my previous attempt to apply.

Is receiving a CC offer in the mail a good indicator you qualify?

Offers received: Chase Ink, Citi Double Cash, Citi Diamon Prefered, Citi AAdvantage

I embarrassing admit, at nearly 40 I have never really had on my own a major credit card with any real credit limit.

My credit is not great - EQ 641, TU 657, EX 646

I have 2 negative points on my credit left over from the recession: 1 paid off a car loan that was often 60 to 90 days late during the recession. A balance of $200 from a debt I paid off in May of 2017. I have dispute this with documentation to TU in Oct/Nov and they removed it. Yesterday, I submitted the same dispute with documentation to EQ and EX.

For good credit I have an auto loan paid on time for 3 years. I am a co-card holder on two of my bf CC that rarely have any balances but have a credit limit of 9K and 3K, and in Nov I got a woman's clothing store card for $500.

I am seeking to get a card on my own. I would love to have one where I earn points for airline miles AND no foreign transaction fees that I can use while I am traveling abroad. An advice or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 02:41:28 GMT

Check the prequalification with Discover. If you get a preapproval with a solid APR (such as 17.4%) rather than a range (as in 14-22%), it’s usually a good sign that if you pull the trigger, you’ll be approved. It’s a solid, good card and they tend to like thinner profiles. You’d appear on the surface to be a good candidate.

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Meanmchine — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 03:50:03 GMT

Try your luck on the Amex prequal page also

Good luck

Most mail from Citibank is usually just marketing. Go to the Citi prequal site and if you re prequaled there too then that would be a very good sign

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

xaximus — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 13:42:44 GMT

How old are the late payments? If they are from the recession then shouldn't they be over 7 years old at this point ? I would review that. Also, I would get all of your credit reports and comb through them to see what's on it and what's not. Anything that is not legitimate, I would review/dispute. At times, minor discrepancies can be reported so it's always good to monitor/review your reports. Once that's ironed out, I would go with the prequals the above posters have stated.

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Girlzilla88 — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 00:07:26 GMT

It is NEVER to late to get your ducks in a row!!! I was 29 when I seriously started even looking/learning about credit so no shame in that especially when you are trying now that is all that matters!!! A lot of factors can play into an approval but a preapproval doesn't necessarily mean approved or a high chance BUT I would recommend doing an online preapproval with some since that is a better response of an actual preapproval vs. we want you to apply so we can find out letter if that makes sense?!

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 07:07:01 GMT

Thank you so much for the kind words, advice, and support!

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 07:10:35 GMT

Thank you for the advice on Discovery prequal. I had put in to see and they gave me a range but this does help me in the future to know what to look for. Thank you for giving of your time and responding!

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 07:13:02 GMT

Thank you for the suggestion on the Amex. I had not thought of this and good to know about the mail. I did check their sites for a prequal and one had nothing for me while the other had a couple suggestions. Thank you for giving of your time to answer!

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 07:30:53 GMT

Keep in mind that while a solid APR is a solid offer, Discover will show you cards with a range only if they think you will qualify for them. If you definitely don't qualify, they'll say you have no offers and send you a letter in the mail as to why. They're the only one that does this that I'm aware of (I got said letter when I had my credit reports frozen) and you can check every 10 days.

You seem like an excellent candidate for Disco. If it were me, I would pull the trigger. The worst they can say is no but Disco approvals are far more common than Disco denials if people use the prequal page first.

Disco's first year cash back match makes the Discover IT extremely lucrative since the cash back match is effectively 2% on everything and 10% on rotating categories for that first year so its worth the HP, especially since they love to be your main card (they love lots of spend and lots of payments).

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 13:46:58 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

My credit is not great - EQ 641, TU 657, EX 646

From what I've experienced and many others as well, targeted offers seem to peak with credit scores in the 650-700 range, give or take. When I started my rebuild I was a bit lower than that range and didn't really receive much, maybe 1-2 mailers per month. As I found myself in that range, I'd get a mailer seemingly almost every day... it was ridiculous how many arrived. They slowed down considerably probably around 750+ and at 800+ I'm back to maybe 2-3 per month or so. It really just comes down to money, as the CCCs are going to target those that they feel they can make the most profit from. Scores too low, you're too high risk. Scores too high, you're probably not profitable. It's that middle group that is often the bread and butter customer and who gets targeted the most with mailers.

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 14:40:50 GMT

Thank you for giving of your time to respond and sharing your experince. It is very helpful information to have. Congrats on the credit rebuild!

Re: Your Advice/Knowledge Please: How Do Credit Card Companies Make the Choice to Mail You Offers

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Feb 2019 14:55:36 GMT

Thabks for the additional Disc knowledge. I did go to the prequal space and was given two differnt card offers. I can’t remember what they were at this time but one was the IT card. I have one dispute waiting to get reviewed and removed off my EQ and EX report (which I feel will happen because Tran did it last Oct). I have seen my Tran score improve by 17 points and am hoping the others will follow. Do you think I should wait till their is a response on my disput (22+/- days from now) and see what other cards might be available to me? OR would you get the Disc now and in 30 days apply for a differnt card I may qualify for? I would really like a card I can use in Europe and it seems that would be Visa or MC.

Thanks for giving of your time to respond.