Does the pre-qual have a solid APR or a range? Is the additional intro APR BT offer going to save you a lot of interest charges?
The way I see it is, you have a window where your CR is better than it's going to be once the BT hits and your Util jumps so you have to assess your risk vs. reward.
The risk is that you are denied, you take an HP hit, get a few points knocked off your CR temporarily (likely won't matter once your BT hits anyway), and get nothing in return. All that is temporary since the impact of an HP decreases starting after 6 months and vanishes at 1 year before falling off at 2 years.
The reward is that you save a bunch of money on interest charges if you are approved.
Seems to me that the potential rewards (saving real money) far outweighs potential risk (you take a temporary hit to your CR, no tangible harm unless you are planning to apply for loans in the near future).
Of course that's just my take on it. People have different risk vs. rewards tolerances.
