Wife Chase United Explorer pre-approval?

[MyFault]

I'm in the process of helping my wife rebuild her credit, she destroyed it while we were still dating, and i noticed today after checking into an upcoming flight, that she's getting a preapproval for the United cards on the United website. I find this hard to believe for the following reasons:

Her Fico8 scores are 649 and below (i haven't checked her updated transunion and equifax lately), but she hit 580 at her experian lowest, when i found out her credit was a mess.

She has no debt or collections.

She has 5 late payments across three cards. They are as follows:

card1: (closed) 30 day late, June 2017

card2:  (open) 30 day late, Oct 2020, 60 day late Nov 2020

card3: (closed - Chase United) 30 day late, Aug 2019, 30 day late Nov 2020

Her last late was was Nov 2020, and i've been trying to get her a Discover card to expand her file, but all that she's been preapproved from them is a secured card, which i'm trying to avoid, so i have a really hard time thinking Chase would actually approve her for a United card, that they closed on her 16 months ago.

Long story short, is the preapproval BS? What are the real odds of her getting approved? I'm going to assume they're actually slim to none.

[dragontears]

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@MyFault wrote:

I'm in the process of helping my wife rebuild her credit, she destroyed it while we were still dating, and i noticed today after checking into an upcoming flight, that she's getting a preapproval for the United cards on the United website. I find this hard to believe for the following reasons:

Her Fico8 scores are 649 and below (i haven't checked her updated transunion and equifax lately), but she hit 580 at her experian lowest, when i found out her credit was a mess.

She has no debt or collections.

She has 5 late payments across three cards. They are as follows:

card1: (closed) 30 day late, June 2017

card2:  (open) 30 day late, Oct 2020, 60 day late Nov 2020

card3: (closed - Chase United) 30 day late, Aug 2019, 30 day late Nov 2020

Her last late was was Nov 2020, and i've been trying to get her a Discover card to expand her file, but all that she's been preapproved from them is a secured card, which i'm trying to avoid, so i have a really hard time thinking Chase would actually approve her for a United card, that they closed on her 16 months ago.

Long story short, is the preapproval BS? What are the real odds of her getting approved? I'm going to assume they're actually slim to none.

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It is marketing. 

In my experience, "preapprovals" directly from airlines or hotels don't use the lender's criteria for screening and are not worth the paper that they are printed on, all you need to do is join the airline/hotel loyalty program and you will start seeing these "preapprovals".

[Remedios]

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@MyFault wrote:

I'm in the process of helping my wife rebuild her credit, she destroyed it while we were still dating, and i noticed today after checking into an upcoming flight, that she's getting a preapproval for the United cards on the United website. I find this hard to believe for the following reasons:

Her Fico8 scores are 649 and below (i haven't checked her updated transunion and equifax lately), but she hit 580 at her experian lowest, when i found out her credit was a mess.

She has no debt or collections.

She has 5 late payments across three cards. They are as follows:

card1: (closed) 30 day late, June 2017

card2:  (open) 30 day late, Oct 2020, 60 day late Nov 2020

card3: (closed - Chase United) 30 day late, Aug 2019, 30 day late Nov 2020

Her last late was was Nov 2020, and i've been trying to get her a Discover card to expand her file, but all that she's been preapproved from them is a secured card, which i'm trying to avoid, so i have a really hard time thinking Chase would actually approve her for a United card, that they closed on her 16 months ago.

Long story short, is the preapproval BS? What are the real odds of her getting approved? I'm going to assume they're actually slim to none.

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Post a screenshot and you'll get your answer. 

If it's something she got in the mail, shred it and forget it. 

If she has checking/savings, and pre-approval is green check mark, decent chance. 

[MyFault]

It's on the United website, not in the Chase website. She doesn't have any Chase accounts currently.

As i suspected, it's marketing. I'd like to get her back into a United CC, but as i figured it's going to take a bit longer until she's back above 700.

[CaptJOB]

There was a point a year or two ago where the purple pre-approved banner in the United app was bypassing 5/24 for people but I haven't heard of that happening lately. Maybe it's back? Worth a double HP to find out? Only she can say.

[MyFault]

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@CaptJOB wrote:

There was a point a year or two ago where the purple pre-approved banner in the United app was bypassing 5/24 for people but I haven't heard of that happening lately. Maybe it's back? Worth a double HP to find out? Only she can say.

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She'll just have to wait a bit longer until she's above a 700. It's not worth the HP to find out, as i'm almost positive she'll be denied. The only benefit is free bags and priority boarding, which she gets anyway when i book our flights.

She's learned her lesson on credit and lates, and is now an AU on my Gold card which is her daily as well as a Chase visa backup card if Amex isn't accepted.

Until she's back above 700, and she can get her own cards, we'll just keep things how they are.