Discover Pre-Approvals

[nwa479]

In January this year I tried the Discover pre-approval and was offered the secure card.  I rechecked every month and in March was preapproved for two of their cards with rewards. My credit profile had improved from high utilization and two collections to 1 percent utilization and one paid collection (the other collection was removed with PFD). Fico 8 scores with approval were 672 EX, 722EQ, 660 TU.  I had signed up for Discovers free credit score last year.  They are now sending me email reminders when my score is updated to check for prequalified card offers 

I did not pull the trigger and apply for the card after preappoval because we will be applying for a new mortgage soon.  

Once we have the new mortgage behind us, I will apply for the card.  

So I'm not sure which CRA they use to pull from but it looks like they will possibly approve with scores below 700 and collections on your report.  

[Anonymous]

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@nwa479 wrote:

In January this year I tried the Discover pre-approval and was offered the secure card.  I rechecked every month and in March was preapproved for two of their cards with rewards. My credit profile had improved from high utilization and two collections to 1 percent utilization and one paid collection (the other collection was removed with PFD). Fico 8 scores with approval were 672 EX, 722EQ, 660 TU.  I had signed up for Discovers free credit score last year.  They are now sending me email reminders when my score is updated to check for prequalified card offers.

They  must have liked what you wree doing with all the other accounts that you have to move you from secured card preapproval to overing you two unsecure card preapprovals. Knowing that you also cleared one of your collection accounts as well. I signed up for their free credit score this year as well. Finally I have just received an email asking me to check out what preapproval offers they have for me. I just recenetly checked out if I had offers, but still received the secured card offer an I opted not to apply for it.  I assume since I recently had a baddie removed from my credit and I have one score over 670 helps. They run Experian soft pulls if I am not mistaken.

I did not pull the trigger and apply for the card after preappoval because we will be applying for a new mortgage soon.  Smart Choice.

Once we have the new mortgage behind us, I will apply for the card.  

So I'm not sure which CRA they use to pull from but it looks like they will possibly approve with scores below 700 and collections on your report.  

More than likely once I have a 700 credit score on my profile I might start getting offers just like you have. They pull experian if I am not mistaken.

Good luck!

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[Anonymous]

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@Doodlebug30 wrote:

@Anonymous , The fact that you have baddies on your report would be a good explanation. Theyre offering you the secured version as a way to build a relationship/give you a shot while also protecting themselves. I applied back in June 2019 and they denied me. The only baddies i had were old student loan lates which were 5 yrs old at the time. Fast forward to October 2020 (still have the lates but at this point they are 6 years old) and discover prequalified me with 11.99 APR. I applied and was approved for 4500 SL. So in my case, it was just time that needed to pass i guess? My scores had risen a bit also bc i took care of my other accts. I guess my point is, give them time. Keep checking prequal & something will eventually pop up!

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That makes perfect sense due to my baddies. I have seen others that have been graduated from secure to unsecured with baddies on their profiles. They want that trust and relationship build filter in there. I get it. However I thought that they could see that I have 3 secure credit cards as of right now that I have never been late on in the 10 months that I have had them. I also have a 3 month secure loan in additon to a unsecure card for 3 months and never been late on those. I thought they would look at that as improvement. Before I had my credit issues I had 15 accounts reporting with exceptional payment history for a long time, I just ran into a wall with a business partner whom killed me financially.

I am really trying to avoid the secure card route again. I think they have served their purpose. One of my cards have been outstanding while the other two have been subpar. I herar such great things about discover, but I also hear how some have not graduated for up to three years. That is a long time to hold up security especially when someone has really improved their credit worthiness. I know each profile is different, but I spend all that I buy on my credit cards and then just pay them off. I have seen the profiles that do that, and discover seems to penalize them for that. I am going to wait just a little bit longer to see if they will provide a unsecure approval. If they do not in the next three months I will more than likely accept their secure card and cancel one of my other secure cards . Thanks for the info.

[Anonymous]

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@Ficoproblems247 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Ficoproblems247 wrote:

It could be for any number of reasons. Do they cite their reasons in their denials? I can't remember. Have you burned Discover in the past? 

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I have not received any denials as of yet, just a basic secure card pre-approval. Fortunately I have never burned them. I am in pretty good shape as far as burn goes. My issues were cell phones, co-signing for things that I should have not. I paid all of my credit card lenders back. I just had a lot of collections when I started back my rebuild. I am now down to two baddies, one will age delete in 5 months, and the other will age delete end of 2022. Hopefully I work the latter one out, but I must wait a few months for the sol.

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@Ficoproblems247 wrote:

That's a bummer, it's hard to say why they are not offering you unsecured at this time, but obviously they just aren't feeling comfortable yet. Their pre-approval tool is generally reliable. I will say as far as secured cards, Discover has to be one of the very best ones out there. It has the potential to graduate in as a little as 7 months. If they're a lender you would like to get in with, starting with a secured card is not a bad way to go. 

@Anonymous wrote:

I agree, I like the fact that its a possibility to graduate from secure to unsecure in 7 months. Its much better than the options that I have now. I had a 453 last year, but did not get preapproved for the secure card when I tried then. So i went with OpenSky, First Progress, & Assent Card. Neither one of these cards graduate, but the advantages are they do not pull credit and they have been true to that. They have all offered me second cards, but those are not needed so I declined the offers. Now that my scores are up 200 plus points I have other options. I think that discover is not a bad option at all. My short term goal is to have three unsecure credit cards so that I can close the three secured cards that I have now. Then at the end of the year I will apply for a 4th unsecure card and then I will garden for abou ta year or two. I just need four reputable companies that I can grow with. Thanks for your feedback.

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[nwa479]

@Anonymous Looking at the scores in your signature it looks like your making some fast progress with scores now in the 660 range.  I'm not sure how recent your baddies are so not sure how fast your scores will improve to 700, but it may make sense to just wait a few more months and see if they will eventually switch you to unsecured.   The other option, with Discover, is that they appear to move from secured to unsecured after 6 or 7 months from other comments I've seen on this forum.  They would probably graduate to unsecured quicker than some of the other cards.  

They may also look at other factors like Debt to Income ratio, or what else you have on your profile.  I had paid off all my cards (except one with $10 on it and started using a few other cards heavily to work on increasing credit lines (it worked with two of them, Cap1 and Comenity MC).  I was asked by Cap1 via email to update my income so they could review me for a credit line increase.  A few weeks later they increased my QS card from 1,000 to 4,000. 

I'm not sure if Discover looks just at the credit scores or also other factors on your profile.

[Anonymous]

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@nwa479 wrote:

@Anonymous Looking at the scores in your signature it looks like your making some fast progress with scores now in the 660 range.  I'm not sure how recent your baddies are so not sure how fast your scores will improve to 700, but it may make sense to just wait a few more months and see if they will eventually switch you to unsecured.   The other option, with Discover, is that they appear to move from secured to unsecured after 6 or 7 months from other comments I've seen on this forum.  They would probably graduate to unsecured quicker than some of the other cards.  

They may also look at other factors like Debt to Income ratio, or what else you have on your profile.  I had paid off all my cards (except one with $10 on it and started using a few other cards heavily to work on increasing credit lines (it worked with two of them, Cap1 and Comenity MC).  I was asked by Cap1 via email to update my income so they could review me for a credit line increase.  A few weeks later they increased my QS card from 1,000 to 4,000. 

I'm not sure if Discover looks just at the credit scores or also other factors on your profile.

Thanks for the feedback. I am hoping to hit 700 scores, but not sure how long that will take. I am patient and never do things on impulse. My credit rebuild has been very calculated and a lot of questions and reading. My score uprising has been much faster than I thought it would be being that I started with about 15 baddies. I am down to only two unpaid baddies on my credit file, but a total of four baddies reporting. Two of the baddies I have tried to get removed but have been unsuccessful. The two paid baddies will age off credit in middle of 2023. One of the unpaid baddies will age off credit by October. I have tried to negoiate with them and do a pay for a delete but they will not budge. They have offered to delete if I pay, but I told them I can't pay for something that verizon pull as a sham. I ended my contract on the very last day of the contract and move to a different cell phone provider, well I ended the contract 7 hours too early and they charged me an early termination fee for five cellphones. So that did not fly well with me being that my phone line was paid up, they just did not want me to leave. So I will wait until that ages off in a few months. Then I am down to one unpaid baddies, and I have a feeling it will have to age off because that creditor is not budging either. But all of my baddies are more than 5 years old.

The graduating rate of discover works for some and others not so much. Since I already have three secure cards I am not looking for a fourth. I am trying to close out my current secure cards as soon as possible. I do not want to trade secure for secure. If I am approve for another unsecure card I will close one of my secure cards. Everytime I get a new unsecure card i will close out one secure card until my three secured cards are gone.

My debt to income ratio is fine, I have a decent amount of disposable income that I am now using to invest in a business. i am will under 15% dti and I have no car payments as I own my vehicles out right. My credit utilization is less than 1%, I am going to try to get it up to 10 percent in the next two weeks. I always make a mistake and overpay on each of my credit cards so I am not getting the benefit of my cc as I should. I seen a report on my credit monitoring that says I haave not used my revolving credit and that is a factor for a lower score and that creditors see me as a higher risk factor because I do not use my credit. However, that is the exact oppisite. I use all of my credit cards I just pay them off 5 days before payment cycle. I am going to change that and leave at least a 400 balance on one of my cards starting next month. I am hoping that does not cause a problem with my internal score with NFCU..

Either way thank you for your imput, I am hoping to have discover in my wallet by fall.

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[nwa479]

That's awesome.  Great dit, utilization, and almost done with the baddies.  I agree you don't need any more secured cards.  You should be able to get unsecured cards with your profile now.  I don't remember what your secured cards were, but I would keep trying preapprovals to see if you can qualify for cards.  Good luck!

[Anonymous]

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@nwa479 wrote:

That's awesome.  Great dit, utilization, and almost done with the baddies.  I agree you don't need any more secured cards.  You should be able to get unsecured cards with your profile now.  I don't remember what your secured cards were, but I would keep trying preapprovals to see if you can qualify for cards.  Good luck!

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Thank you.

When I started out my goal was to acquire as many tradelines without a hard credit pull. Lots of research then I finally took the plunge after not getting preapproved for cap1, and discover. All cards applied for in July of 2020  beginning credit score 453

1. OpenSky - $300 after 60 days the offered me a second card. I declined

2. AssentCard - $400 after 10 days they offered me a first progress card since they are serviced by same company.

3. First Progress - $500 after offer i applied for this card.

By  7-27-2020 I had all 3 cards in my hand to start my rebuild process. Then I started tackling the derogs one by one. 15 to begin with. Draining at its most and never going to visit that era again.

For five active accounts I know have only 2 hard pulls. So I have only 2 hard pulls in 6 years. I do not ever applied for lots of credit I have always used cash. I realize now I must use credit to grow financially and build relationships with banks.

[nwa479]

@Anonymous I haven't had any experience with those three credit card companies.  Do any of those secured cards also have monthly or annual fees?  Your utilization is good, but not sure what other items on your profile could be improved like credit mix with an SSL loan.  I've been rebuilding since 2016, but didn't really get serious about it until this past year.  Had scores in the mid 500s.  

You mentioned establishing relationships with banks.  Credit Unions are usually good to work with, but some may do a HP.   I've researched several on this site, but have not as of yet decided to work with any.  I'm not connected to any credit union at the moment, just a local bank and also a cash management/investment account with fidelity.  

[Anonymous]

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@nwa479 wrote:

@Anonymous I haven't had any experience with those three credit card companies.  Do any of those secured cards also have monthly or annual fees?  Your utilization is good, but not sure what other items on your profile could be improved like credit mix with an SSL loan.  I've been rebuilding since 2016, but didn't really get serious about it until this past year.  Had scores in the mid 500s.  

OpenSky is probably the best secure cc company on the market. Speaking only for companies that do not offer graduation. If they had a unsecure product hands down I would stay with them. AssentCard is serviced by First Progress, customer service is really not that great. If they make a mistake they will blame you or anyone else. For 8 of the ten months that I have been with them, they have not reported to all three CRA's i had to fight with them monthly until finally asked them for new cards to to being damaged. Then ironically the new accounts reported to all three credit agencies.. SSL is in the mix I dont know how much it helped my score because I followed my own course instead of the myfico forum way just test the waters. But since getting one, my scores have increase a minimum of 17 points across the board with one over 30 points. So  the credit mix is fine.

You mentioned establishing relationships with banks.  Credit Unions are usually good to work with, but some may do a HP.   I've researched several on this site, but have not as of yet decided to work with any.  I'm not connected to any credit union at the moment, just a local bank and also a cash management/investment account with fidelity.  

When I say banks I mean all lending not just a particular platform. I noticed you have 10 cc are all of those subprime cards? I was thiking about getting a lot of cards at first, but after reading the forum, most comments stated 3 credit cards and 1 loan would do the trick. That trick has been spot on for me.  You have made progress as well, are most of your cards unsecure? If not, why do you still have so many cards that are secured? Do you still have baddies? Do you have an exit strategy from supbrime cards to better cards?

Good luck.

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