Amex Cardmember Pre-approvals/Prequalified Offers

Anonymous · ‎09-10-2017

I was going to post this in another thread about Amex prequal offers but it was locked. Hope people find this useful.

There has been a lot of debate about seeing pre-approved offers when you are already a card member. Often times the incognito method to "check for offers" leads to a login and never gives actual results.

Apparently, you can view all cards, select a card you are interested in, hit the apply button which will prompt you to login, then at the actual application page where it asks for income info it will tell you if you are preapproved.

For me, it stills shows the full range for the APR but YMMV. I checked this, the new Blue Delta, and the SPG the other day when I apped Disco and all three showed Pre-approved. Decided to go for the SPG for some upcoming hotel stays I have. Approved for $2K! Seems they are pretty solid.

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

My issue has been that I will click on the Pre-Qualified Offers link, and find the card I want. Then when I click on apply it takes me through the process and then -- bam, denied. I even went through the whole process *again* with Apply by Phone with a very nice woman who swore up and down that pre-qualify and pre-approve mean the same thing (despite the fact they don't where mortgages are concerned) and that I was sure to be approved if I found the card on the site.

Denied again.

She was confused, and I was rather miffed about having to sit through the whole ordeal again. Not sure what's going on there.

Thoughts?

UncleB · ‎09-11-2017

@Anonymous, thanks for showing what a pre-approval looks like!

In case anybody is wondering, here's what it looks like when you're not pre-approved:

FWIW all of my Amex apps have been 'cold apps', but so far they've always been approved.

Also, it's possible I'm not eligible for pre-approvals due to an Amex account that was IIBK 17 years ago (I've never had a CLI request approved for this reason... my only CLI was an auto-CLI).

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

Thanks this is great information.

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

Woops this didn't work for me and now I have a Starwood Card. I was just seeing if I was pre-approved or not and was expecting to get the login request but I never got it. So instead it went straight through. And only at the 30k point level.

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

DH has 2 Amex cards...He went incognito and tried pre-qual site, where it prompted him to login. Selected the Apply for BCP and definitely got the "pre-approved" message at the top of the page. Finished app and instantly denied! So even pre -approval message isn't solid. He did app for the Amex Plenti card and got a 14 day message. Is that a denial? Why not do instant denial like the BCP?

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

I would call the reconsideration line for that one, for sure, if you're interested in the card. Don't let them send you to the New Accounts team, but ask specifically for the Credit Bureau team. Those are the analysts that can reverse a denial. I can dig through my notes to find the number if you need it, but it's somewhere on the boards.

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Woops this didn't work for me and now I have a Starwood Card. I was just seeing if I was pre-approved or not and was expecting to get the login request but I never got it. So instead it went straight through. And only at the 30k point level.

Did it never ask you for income? I find it odd that you never hit a point where it would ask for input before fully submitting the application.

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

For the BCP or Plenti? He def wants the BCP for the 6% grocery category. I'll look for the number unless you find it...thanks!!!

Anonymous · ‎09-11-2017

DH has to enter income even though it said pre-approved.