Yes you can check preapprovals with cap1 and others without having an existing account with them.
Well said, FinStar. Another thing to note is that whenever you receive a solicitation that says "pre-qualified." pre-selected," or "pre-approved" those solicitations are ones that the lender has actually taken a peek into your credit file(s). After they peek at your credit, by law, the lender then has 45 days to make you the offer (or send you the application, etc.) Those letters, by law, also must contain the "Opt out of credit offers" language and phone number on them. If you ever look at your credit report and it lists creditors that have looked at your credit -- but no impact on your score (aka: soft pulls) this is where they show up. If your solicitation says "you're invited to apply" this means the creditor has not peeked at your credit and they have acquired your name/info from another source, not the CRAs -- maybe a 3rd party they do business with, etc. These types of offers are not under law to send you the solicitation. Hope this helps.
@FinStar wrote: Any type of offer usually has specific pre-screened criteria depending on the lender and product. Typically, the most solid offers are those that have the "pre-approved" or "pre-qualified" language (AmEx, Capital One, Chase, BB&T come to mind, for instance). That said, they are not 100% guaranteed (still subject to credit approval) since a disclosure/fine print is usually provided when the offer is submitted online or via the accompanying mailer. When a solid offer is referenced it's usually based on the premise that nothing major has changed with an overall credit profile when the initial pre-screening occurred.
Of noteworthy, a variety of lenders interchangeably use pre-approved or pre-qualified as a condition that you've met most of the criteria for an approval. By the same token, similar targeted offers can be used to entice interest in a product, such as "invited to apply", "recommended for you" or "pre-selected" which do not have the same pre-screening criteria and are more marketing solicitations than anything, even if they have a reservation code, set APR, and/or contain the pre-screening opt-out language.
Interesting Ty <3
I see people use the terms "prequalified" and "preapproved" interchangeably. They are not synonyms, though they may APPEAR to be for many people (explanation follows).
This can vary by lender, but generally, "prequalified" means that you fit their marketing profile of people they'd expect to want the card, in terms of income, spend, or some other pattern that reaches their marketing department. Generally, "preapproved" means they soft-pulled your credit, and based on that, they are pretty sure you'd qualify for the card (but no guarantee).
The effect is similar for your average person, because if you have (say) a spend pattern that Amex thinks makes sense for the Platinum Card, you most likely will also have the credit score, income and other factors that would lead to approval for the Platinum Card; but if you differ in some way, as many of us on this board do (rapidly building credit or otherwise seeing a lot of changes to our credit profiles), prequalifications are likely to be meaningless for you.
