There are different ways that pre-apps come about, but here's the most common way:
A CCC contracts out to another firm to go roaming through credit bureau reports to find consumers who fit certain criteria, which might make them attractive candidates for the CCC's products. So for example, the boundaries might be (and I'm completely making this up): EX FICO 640 or above, no lates over 60 days, any collections 4 years or older, no unpaid charge-offs, no BK's or other public records. The contracted firm pays the CRA's to get the names and mailing addresses of any consumers who fit these criteria, and presto! you have an envelope in your box.
The problem is that some companies have Thou-Shalt-Not's that immediately disqualify you. For instance, if you ever had a charge-off, etc., with Providian, you aren't going to get a new account with WaMu. If these criteria aren't part of what the CCC gives to the contractor, you might get a letter, and then get shot down when you apply.
If you ever pull a full credit report directly from the CRA, as opposed to the reports you get with your myFICO scores, or on TrueCredit, or CreditSecure, etc., you will see a section that lists both hard and soft inquiries. Generally, the "hards" are listed first, and these are the ones that you get when you actually apply for credit. After that comes a separate section, which might be called something like "Requests viewable only by you", or some such. These are what are called "soft inquiries."
The prefixes on these softs show why they were allowed to be pulled. -PR means promo, and these are the ones described above. They only get your name and address, so that they can offer you credit. Others with prefices of -AR or -AM are for account review or account maintenance. These are supposed to be reserved for companies that you already have credit with, and they are checking to make sure that you're not getting over your head, or to see if your credit has improved enough that they might want to offer you an additional product. There are some others, for instance for when you pull your own credit here, or on TrueCredit for instance. All of these softs do not count against you on your credit reports. But it can be useful to know who's softing you, to give you an idea of how you look to creditors. HTH
* Credit is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. * Who's the boss --you or your credit?
FICO's: EQ 781 - TU 793 - EX 779 (from PSECU) - Done credit hunting; having fun with credit gardening. - EQ 590 on 5/14/2007
