Does a freeze prevent prequals?

[expatCanuck]

Opted back in to offers a month or so ago, tho' I've kept my accounts frozen at the 3 major bureaus.

Received first CC mail offer (ITA, not prequal) last week (tho' I already have a card with that issuer).

Wondering if a freeze prevents prequals.

[trusty]

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wrote:

Opted back in to offers a month or so ago, tho' I've kept my accounts frozen at the 3 major bureaus.

Received first CC mail offer (ITA, not prequal) last week (tho' I already have a card with that issuer).

Wondering if a freeze prevents prequals.

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I have found that a security freeze certainly prevents preapprovals from resolving, on any of the websites that run them.

One thing that I always find odd, is that the vast majority of credit issuers, despite having open accounts with them, will still want an unfrozen report, when applying for an increase, or another card product through their institution... when they technically already have permissible purpose to pull your reports whilst frozen.

It boggles my mind that almost no one from any bank can seem to figure out how to use their fully permitted access - over their own customer's accounts - to perform basic credit reviews, during a security freeze... that is supposed to have no bearing on the access of companies that we already do business with.

I cannot figure out what the issue is. I can only guess that creditors must pay more money to pull a frozen report, than an unfrozen one. There really seems to be no other good reason why current creditors would claim they cannot access a frozen report, when they can and should.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Concur with Trusty , in my experience, it does have an affect and it drives me nuts that your own creditor wants you to unfreeze to access your report. I wxperience this with Citi, Discover ,Navy etc.They always want Eq which is frozen so any cli request usually dies right there

[UpperNwGuy]

I agree with Trusty and Average Joe.  It makes no sense, but it seems to be the universal practice.  It really bugs me.

[Anonymous]

So... If I request a CLI from Discover (via website or app) and my CRs are frozen... CLI would likely be denied? Would denial reason be shown in denial message? I've only had Discover 2mo, haven't tried CLI. Amex makes it so easy... I never thought about freeze issues. 

Also... we should unfreeze when doing pre-qual searches on CC sites? I thought that was just a soft pull? When I was going for my 2nd card w/ 1mo credit history, I checked Citi & got a message, something like "sorry no offers, you may have opted out of ?" and maybe "try application" but I didn't apply. 

edit... I've been freezing CRs since Equifax breach.

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wrote:
Concur with Trusty , in my experience, it does have an affect and it drives me nuts that your own creditor wants you to unfreeze to access your report. I wxperience this with Citi, Discover ,Navy etc.They always want Eq which is frozen so any cli request usually dies right there

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[AverageJoesCredit]

Ok, heres the weird thing . When i had my Discover last year, all my reports were frozen and i did receive 3 $500 sp cli no prob bob. Ok wished for more but hey thats Disco right. Anyway. After i experienced Hurrican Maria, towards the end of my first year, ie Oct-Dec, there were 2 or 3 times where i received letters saying they need me to unfreeze my Eq to make a decision. That was really weird and honestly aggrevated me enough to eventually close my account. Many lessons learned there which ill reveal in upcoming posts.

For most people , even with your reports frozen, with Disco you should be ok. Though as with my experience always YMMV

[Anonymous]

They make it hard to play by the rules when the rules don't always ~ rule. 

Do CC companies have to tell you if a CLI request is HP or SP? If not, it's another reason to freeze.

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wrote:
Ok, heres the weird thing . When i had my Discover last year, all my reports were frozen and i did receive 3 $500 sp cli no prob bob. Ok wished for more but hey thats Disco right. Anyway. After i experienced Hurrican Maria, towards the end of my first year, ie Oct-Dec, there were 2 or 3 times where i received letters saying they need me to unfreeze my Eq to make a decision. That was really weird and honestly aggrevated me enough to eventually close my account. Many lessons learned there which ill reveal in upcoming posts.

For most people , even with your reports frozen, with Disco you should be ok. Though as with my experience always YMMV

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[Meanmchine]

If you're an existing card member with Amex, you can get preapprovals on their website, via email and via snail mail. Amex will go a step furthur and approve your appliction for a new account with all your files frozen. Havnt attempted a CLI request with a frozen report

[Anonymous]

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wrote:

Opted back in to offers a month or so ago, tho' I've kept my accounts frozen at the 3 major bureaus.

Received first CC mail offer (ITA, not prequal) last week (tho' I already have a card with that issuer).

Wondering if a freeze prevents prequals.

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This was an excellent question to ask. Thanks. 

[AverageJoesCredit]

SJM, im not 100% sure if a CCC has to inform you if a cli request will be a sp or hp, but most of time, by knowing which creditor you'd like a cli from, you can probably find that from researching here toull be able to get a general idea if tgey usually sp or hp. Most of us have requested cli and have posted our experiences so most of the major banks are pretty well known. Just quick examples Navy usually hp, Discover usually sp, Amex usually sp, Chase usually hp, Synchrony usually sp, Citi hp but with sp opportunities every 6 months.

In the end in in favor of keeping reports froze for security and to help one curb apping all the time