Amex Pre-qual Soft Pull Question

[Anonymous]

Hey there. I've been happily gardening for a while now, and the other day I got curious and used Amex's website to see if I had any prequalification offers. As a background, I had good credit up until last year, when i went very late (120) on some student loans. To my surprise, they actually had pre qualified offers for me.

The best one was an offer for the Gold card, with a 50,000 point sign up bonus for just $1,000 worth of spend, along with a set APR (not a range) of 20.72%... Which is quite a bit better than the normal offer, apparently. These offers were not there a month or so ago, the last time I checked. Of course, this resulted in a soft pull on my credit, but I am curious as to how clear of a look that pull is. I'm tempted to apply since my lates were over a year ago at this point, but I'm paranoid that i would still be declined due to them, despite the pre-qual. I would assume the lates are very disqualifying, but then again I would also expect not to get this offer...

Wouldn't Amex be able to see those lates via the soft pull? For reference, my current EX Score is 683, 2-3% util overall, 4 inquiries in 12 months (all will age to a year in June, I wouldn't apply before then). Additionally, my credit history besides the loans is spotless, but I have no history with Amex specifically.

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

The pre-qualification is pretty solid. Upon applying, the only extra automated process is to see if you're on their blacklist.

[Caardvark]

Do you currently have any other Amex accounts? If so, you have nothing to lose by applying, it will be a SP only. If not, your only risk is a HP but with a 683 EX I think your odds are very good. 

And, to Brian's point, if you are on their blacklist for some reason (previous Amex CO or IIB), they check their internal list first before doing an HP so, they'd let you know you've been declined before wasting an HP

[pinkandgrey]

Amex is usually pretty solid with the prequals but of course nothing is guaranteed. Good luck if you go for it!

[Anonymous]

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@Caardvark wrote:

Do you currently have any other Amex accounts? If so, you have nothing to lose by applying, it will be a SP only. If not, your only risk is a HP but with a 683 EX I think your odds are very good. 

And, to Brian's point, if you are on their blacklist for some reason (previous Amex CO or IIB), they check their internal list first before doing an HP so, they'd let you know you've been declined before wasting an HP

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I see. Thanks for the info. Question: do you mean to say that if I had an account with Amex already, they would only do a soft pull? Fascinating, I didn't know that. 

It sounds like from what everyone says that I have a good shot... IllI probably end up waiting until my inquiries age to a year, though. That should come with a nice little point boost as well. Good to know that my lates may not be as disqualifying as I thought, thoigh!

[Anonymous]

Letting those inquiries fall out of scoring is a great idea. And yes, once you’re in with AmEx you can get additional cards with no HP. It is a nice perk