topic Prequalificaton usually means nothing in Credit Cards

Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:02:48 GMT

I've seen quite a few new people postng on here who were confused and through that because CreditKarma "recommended" a card for them, or because BoA "prequalified": them on their site, that it really meant something.

I'm postng this in hope of helping those folks avoid HP's.

Credit Karma recommendations are just marketing and mean ZIP. Nothing.

BoA prequalification means nothing too. Someone entered their dog's name and the dog prequalified.

Now, there are a few sites that do a legitimate prequal. I believe Capital One is one of them. Others on the boards with more knowledge about this subject will be able to post which ones are legitimate. (please do)

I just hate to see so many people wasting hard pulls and applying because CreditKarma or BoA told them to. BoA also told "Fido" he could get a card!

Hope this helps.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Callandra — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:05:43 GMT

Discover is also worthless. I've seen Donald Duck and Lucille McGuillicudy get pre-approved offers.

Supposedly Cap1 and Chase are the most accurate but prequal is NEVER 100%. I don't like it when people say "it's golden" since I've seen quite a few people have prequals from them and then get declined (more so Chase than Cap1).

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:07:31 GMT

Someone should enter Napoleon Bonaparte on all of the credit card websites as a test - and see which ones are legitimate!

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:10:17 GMT

Capital One, Chase, Citi, US Bank, and Amex's pre-qualifiers seem pretty reliable, but never a guarantee.

Discover, BOA, and Credit Karma's (and other sites like it) are not reliable at all.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

ILBrian — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:11:00 GMT

With respect to Chase and Capital One offers they are from a period in time and may not be a live soft pull... once they apply if their situation has changed they could be denied... if it hasn't changed and the score remains the same it should be an approval.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:11:42 GMT

Do you search on here for direct mail withAPR, if you get one of those you're in good shape. My brother gets literature from American Express for some really sweet offers and he won't budge. I'm trying to get us referral points lol. He simply wont budge. Way better offers and I had or my mom.
Credit Karma gets a score for you and comparison to other people with the same score someone with a few baddies with 20 years of credit history is going to have a Credit Karma score higher than someone who has not screwed up and is just starting out. depending on the lender they would rather open the door for the thin file guy. So go on each site and do their own in-house prequals unless you get some special literature of course.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:18:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Do you search on here for direct mail withAPR, if you get one of those you're in good shape. My brother gets literature from American Express for some really sweet offers and he won't budge. I'm trying to get us referral points lol. He simply wont budge. Way better offers and I had or my mom.
Credit Karma gets a score for you and comparison to other people with the same score someone with a few baddies with 20 years of credit history is going to have a Credit Karma score higher than someone who has not screwed up and is just starting out. depending on the lender they would rather open the door for the thin file guy. So go on each site and do their own in-house prequals unless you get some special literature of course.

I was just gonna chime in and say the same thing.

CK's "approval odds" are based on the amount of people on CK with similar FAKO scores that were approved for that card. So if one has a 700 FAKO on CK and most people with a 700 FAKO were approved for Chase Freedom... it'll say you have good approval odds. On the flip side, if your CK FAKO is 650 and there are very few people on CK with a FAKO of 650 that were approved for AMEX Everyday... it'll say you have poor approval odds.

The problem here is that the FAKO is calculated so differently from FICO and for a lot of people, myself included, CK scores can be 50-100 points different than your true FICO scores. That difference varies from person to person, and we all know that there is so much more to an approval/denial than a numerical score, so two people with the same CK FAKO can get very very different results.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:23:18 GMT

Credit Karma scores are also not correct and are usually off by 20-30 points form the real FICO score.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:24:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
CK scores can be 50-100 points different than your true FICO scores. That difference varies from person to person, and we all know that there is so much more to an approval/denial than a numerical score, so two people with the same CK FAKO can get very very different results.

Or even 50-100points off and wrong as noted above. I would not waste time with CrediKarma scores.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:26:32 GMT

It gives people false hope. my credit karma scores last year were over 700, and now that my real scores are almost 700 my creditkarma is 650 because of the inquries. it's all backwards for the people who need to persue credit options the most.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:27:18 GMT

I think another valid point is that some people are putting too much faith in prequals and it is leading them to make detrimental decisions (i.e., applying for a card when your score is too low for any reasonable chance of approval).

I wanted to post this subject in hope that people putting so much faith in prequal will read it and deliberate before jumping in for a hard pull and basing their decision on a fake prequal.

As others have correctly stated, even with the somewhat reliable prequal sites mentioned, there is no guarantee.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

happypill — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:28:22 GMT

BofA and Discover prequals are useless. All 3rd party recommendations are useless. The others, if they give you a firm APR in the prequal, it's generally a really good indicator.

Personally, the only site that every gives me prequals is US Bank, but I haven't applied for any cards with them. I'm kind of suspicious of that actually. I've been pretty successful cold-apping though. Cap One never gives me a prequal, but they always seem to surprise me on the positive side when I app or ask for something.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:29:10 GMT

Credit Karma is worthless

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:30:52 GMT

@happypill wrote:
BofA and Discover prequals are useless. All 3rd party recommendations are useless. The others, if they give you a firm APR in the prequal, it's generally a really good indicator.

Yes, a firm APR can be a good indicator of having a reasonable chance at the card

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:31:04 GMT

I've heard Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse have one also.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:37:27 GMT

cap one never gives me a prequal, but they softed my report a few times in the months after I entered my info

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:44:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
cap one never gives me a prequal, but they softed my report a few times in the months after I entered my info

Iberico, I noticed the same thing on my reports too - CapOne softed me several times in the 2 months after I tried their prequal. They did not prequal me on the site but must have been checking me out once they got my info that I entered on the prequal site.

I opt out of all offers so that is probably why I never prequal for anything.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:58:58 GMT

Just thought I would let people know. in the last 24 hours, someone was pre qualm for citi and another was pre qualm for Amex. They were both denied. I always thought Amex was pretty solid. Guess not.

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 20:59:54 GMT

Qual not qualm. Ugh

Re: Prequalificaton usually means nothing

DrZoidberg — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 21:03:15 GMT

CK is a guesstimate just like the card match tool. Shouldn't be use as a focus for a pre-qualify. As far as BoA. I call hogwash on the dog's name. You still have to enter your last 4 and that crosschecks your address and your DOB so the offer is for you, the name isn't as imporant. I find BoA to be reliable.