@MegaZX30 wrote:Hello, this might be a slightly random question, but I was wondering if anyone knows how often do Card companies update there pre-approval list or whatever it might be called.
I ask because I've been semi-interested in getting a Capital One Card. I'll check their website every now and again. Sometimes I'm 'found' in there pre-aproval app for a couple months and then it seems that for 2 - 3 times as long if not longer and this is not an exact quote but 'We couldn't find an exact match in our data base, but based on your input you may like these'
I want to apply when I actually have a pre-approval offer in the database under the assumption my chance of getting the card should be at least marginally higher then if not there. Esspecially since I know that getting the card or not they pull a hard from all 3 scores...
Also, was not sure if the pre-approval offers are updated at different times or intervals between different companies.
Well If anyone can shed some light for me it would be appreciated.
Still got some things to learn about credit and whatnot so any info helps out.
You don't have to wait for the pre-approval to apply. I did that too and it gave me the same message you recieved about not having anything that matched. I went ahead and apped anyway because I knew that I had nothing that bad on my reports to make them deny me. I was instantly approved for $1000 and that was back in July 2012. I am now at $2500 with this same card today. I did the same thing again this past December with the pre-approval and it gave me the same message once again. I pushed forward and apped for the green cash rewards card and got instantly approved for $500 and a month and a half later this card is now $2000. JUST DO IT! 
Thank you for the reply.
I understand that just being pre-aproved is no guarentee on weither or not you will be aproved for the card in the end. Though it's not a guarentee my assumtion is that if you meet the initial critiria for a card through an offer, and your current credit history itself is good, the higher a chance you may be aproved for said card.
But I'm still curious are they updating these list on a monthly basis or maybe it's done quarterly. or even more or less often then those examples... I guess I shouldn't just wait around for a good offer but it may just be a mental thing I would feel even just slightly more confident with a pre-aproval for a card then just applying for one.
I'm not sure since this is the aproriate area to start talking about this... sorry if it is not but it comes back and pertains to my thinking of getting a credit card in the end.
Currently my credit usage / history is like this:
Orchard Bank Card (December 2010, so 2 years+) CL: $320 (current balance $ 17.90) normally keep the balance low to payed off (bleh for dec... $79 annual fee)
Car Loan: (4 years total payments, - 4 months left!)
2 years - payed on time (Primary my: mom, Co-signer: Me) so weird they did that backwords pretty sure I should of been primary on that...
Refinanced for the remaining 2 years now Im the Primary and only name on the loan. with 4 months remaining still constantly payed on time. 
Credit Line through First CommonWealth: $2500 (had for aprox 6 months due to a personal home project I worked on) about $1945 utilized. paying more then min. on a monthly basis, even more once my car payent is up in 4 months.
Im still not clear cut though credit lines are not reported the same way as a credit card is, but there not quite the same as a loan either... i don't know how they're looked at on a report. I have a creditkarma account but that is not my true score, but what it does show up there under 'Personal Loans / Other' and so far what it took from my CKarma score I've raised back up and just about surpassed.
I would like to be rid of my Orchard Bank card, but based on this should I bother to apply for a better card now or hold off till say I got my car payment taking care of / lower my credit line utitilzation?
Edit:
I think it all depends. For example, Discover and Citi are actively marketing the IT and TY cards right now, so I've been receiving a lot of mailing offers. But everyone else probably has too.
The companies buy lists of people who meet certain criteria from the credit bureaus, and send them offers. But how often this is done really depends on the marketing techniques of certain cards. I would say it happens on an ongoing basis to make sure they have the latest lists of people available for a particular card, but it could be regional in nature, or involve different subsets of the population. So, lets assume it is done daily. The odds of them finding you in that list is still really small if you don't meet the criteria they search for. My guess is that these searches aren't designed to find millions of people at a time, but instead thousands of qualified borrowers. So if a company looks for qualified people from Texas on Monday, and Cali on Tuesday, and Illinois on Wednesday, and you like in Kansas, well then you only get searched once every 50 days. But even then, you need to meet the criteria they are searching for at that time. Doesn't mean you won't be approved, just doesn't mean you meet their ideal marketing campaign.
The companies buy lists of people who meet certain criteria from the credit bureaus, and send them offers. But how often this is done really depends on the marketing techniques of certain cards. I would say it happens on an ongoing basis to make sure they have the latest lists of people available for a particular card, but it could be regional in nature, or involve different subsets of the population. So, lets assume it is done daily. The odds of them finding you in that list is still really small if you don't meet the criteria they search for. My guess is that these searches aren't designed to find millions of people at a time, but instead thousands of qualified borrowers. So if a company looks for qualified people from Texas on Monday, and Cali on Tuesday, and Illinois on Wednesday, and you like in Kansas, well then you only get searched once every 50 days. But even then, you need to meet the criteria they are searching for at that time. Doesn't mean you won't be approved, just doesn't mean you meet their ideal marketing campaign.
Just realized none of that was coherent. No MyFico before breakfast from now on. Sorry for the ramblings.