Pre-Qualifys

[MrTom]

Im not sure if this is the right board, but its question relates to the proper audience.

So Im a curious person, so I look at my updates from Wallet Hub, Credit Karma and so on.  I noticed today it listed Poor approval for the estimated approval for wallet hubs on the cards vs good - very good on the same cards on credit karma.

I goto Amex for a pre-qualify offer  and they listed a few, 1 being a Blue Card with an APR flat, no range.  Side note, I read somewhere once that if your APR on pre-qualify offers is one number and not a range you have a higher chance of getting a final approval vs a range.  It also returned 15 months 0 APR.

I goto discover for a pre-qualify and they suggested the IT with an APR range.

I am shopping for a credit card.  Is there an easy place to goto that will show me my approval odds like they do on the FAKO sites?

Does anyone have any tips what to pay attention to on a pre-qualified offer to know what is a serious offer and what is a general marketing offer?

[Anonymous]

It's been my experience that the FAKO card recommendations from CK are just mostly BS.  Prequalifiers give you a better idea and you can also sign up at discover for prequalify and it gives you free monthly FICO score. Pretty sure AMEX is going to deny you because they are a tough cookie. I had 4 prequalify from AMEX tried the most likely and got denied. Pretty sure only reason I got so many pre qualify from Amex was high 600 low 700 score, 1 inq, 100% payment history, 0 collection or lates.

Tried Discover iT prequalify right after... denied. Get letter from Discover. "Too many inquires in 3 months" letter said my score was 709 at time.

Can't remember score on AMEX letter but there was numerous denial reasons like, Average age of accounts, limited credit history, bla bla there was like 5 or 6 of them. Just FYI

[Anonymous]

Ignore the Credit Karma and such sites for pre approval odds. Go straight to the sites that you wanna pre appove for. These will give you a better shot and they are more accurate but keep in mind it doesn't guarantee an approval. Awhile back I was "pre approved" for an AMEX from CK and got denied so after that I went to the AMEX pre appoved site (I Googled it) and it said they have no offers for me. I learned from that.

I do now have an AMEX card but I went to their site and checked if they have any cards for me. Straight to the source. Ignore the others.

[Anonymous]

When I began my journey in 2014, CreditKarma suggested the Barclays Rewards MC.  I was approved for $500.  CK got a commission on the transaction.

Barclays turned out to be the sketchiest bank ever.

I would simply try the bank sites themselves for pre-qualifieds.  The FAKO sites are looking to make money.  They're likely telling you what they are because approval is a given (when you could have gotten a better card with a higher limit) and they make money that way.

I've gotten $10,000 SLs and on the same day my approval odds on FAKO sites my chances were good or fair. 

Excellent approval odds for a $500 card while they're telling me my chances at a $10,000 are fair.

The FAKO sites are also scared that if you get rejected (when told you have an excellent shot) you then think the FAKO sites are, well, fake.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Credit Karma TU and EQ, great for your reports. Convincing you of Amex approvals, who pull Ex , should show you how out of wack can be. Now thats nothing compared to Experians site, where a 750 gets you highly recommended for Credit One and any beginer card known to man lol

[MrTom]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ignore the Credit Karma and such sites for pre approval odds. Go straight to the sites that you wanna pre appove for. These will give you a better shot and they are more accurate but keep in mind it doesn't guarantee an approval. Awhile back I was "pre approved" for an AMEX from CK and got denied so after that I went to the AMEX pre appoved site (I Googled it) and it said they have no offers for me. I learned from that.

I do now have an AMEX card but I went to their site and checked if they have any cards for me. Straight to the source. Ignore the others.

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I'm starting to go right to the sites to see what they have to offer.

Amex Blue is offering 15 month 0% and 17% APR after the intro.

Discover is offering 15 month 0% and they are not giving an APR just a range.

Chase Freedom is 15 month 0% and 23% APR after intro

Now what I want to know is, can their offer predict the odds to me?  As I said I read somewhere before if lets say the APR has a range in an offer its not usually a good sign.  But AMEX is offering a low rate, and chase a high so if it has to go up, Chase has less room for error.

Any other good cards I should see what they have to offer?

[MrDisco99]

Any offer with a single APR number is usually pretty solid.

As for other cards to try... that depends on what you're looking for.

[Anonymous]

Single APR from Amex and Chase looks solid, the APR range for Discover is important, short ranges like 13%-17% is good, it means it was a personalized offer.  If the range is something like 13%-25%, don't trust it.

[MrTom]

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@MrDisco99 wrote:
Any offer with a single APR number is usually pretty solid.

As for other cards to try... that depends on what you're looking for.

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I am looking for a cash back card, and a card that gives out a high limit so I can run as many expences through it and keep a low utl.

[MrDisco99]

My favorite cash back card is the Citi Double Cash. Once you have a card that returns 2% on everything you can be a lot more selective on the category cards you get to supplement that.