Can a CCC see your other CC product types?

[Anonymous]

When I look at my credit report, I see things like "Chase Card" or "American Express" or "Citicard" etc.  When a creditor pulls your credit report and looks over your accounts, do they have any way of knowing the specific product type that your account is for?  Can they tell if it's a Chase CSP or a Chase Slate?  Do they know if it's a Capital One Platinum vs a Venture?

I've always wondered about this.  If they can't tell easily, perhaps some other account information such as the card number can vary based on product type (for example) and inferences can be made from that?

I ask because I think it would be far more meaningful to a CCC to know exactly which other product types you have, not just which other creditors you have accounts with.  For example, if Discover saw that someone had a Chase Freedom rather than a CSR, they may target that person with an offer to apply since clearly that person sees value in a rotating 5% card, where targeting the CSR card holder may not be as beneficial.  If a CCC saw a travel card in someone's profile, perhaps they'd push their competing travel card product rather than a CB product.

Thoughts?

[FinStar]

They do not and I don't see what the value really would be. Even during manual review, the only information that is specific to the product (by naming convention) would be for certain private label cards, for instance SYNCB Walmart Dual Card (i.e. MC) vs the store card, or some Capital One or Comenity-backed cards.

But to answer your question, no lender spends any amount of time deciphering in their algorithms what the BIN is for each card to make any meaningful inference.

[Anonymous]

They do not.

The only value i see in that if they were able to see the exact card, is to compete.

They might lean on approving you for a product similar to what you already have so you stop using the competitor’s card.

[FireMedic1]

BBS you helped me before. I did some research in the past. For example. Secured cards on reports. If someone views your credit report, they'll likely know it is a secured account, says Norm Magnuson, vice president of public affairs for the Consumer Data Industry Association, a trade group for credit bureaus and reporting agencies. That's because the issuer often codes that into the information it reports to the credit bureaus, he says. Subprime or starter cards carry the card "type" as credit card. Higher tier cards (prime) that says "Flexible spending credit card" or "NPSL" on our report. To me that shows the card as a higher tier card. A Cap1 Platinum wont have this "type" listed. Whereas my QS, Savor and Venture has this listed on my report. This might show you have a prime card from that lender and not a lower tier card. JMO

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.

I was thinking that the benefit would of course be knowing what types of cards a person typically uses for targeting purposes. For example, if someone only uses CB cards, targeting them with a travel card may be a worthless feat.

Interesting discussion for sure.

[HeavenOhio]

There isn't much on one's credit report that'll give a lot of information on the types of products you have, although FireMedic1 makes an interesting point about flexible spending credit cards and the like. That still doesn't tell lenders if you have a Quicksilver or a Freedom or a Blue Cash Preferred, though.

However, companies do share information with each other. Banks disclose information for "joint marketing" purposes. For instance, Capital One's privacy notice states, "Our joint marketing partners include companies such as other banks and insurance companies." It'd be interesting to know what gets shared.

[Anonymous]

I agree that it would be cool to know what gets disclosed between lenders.

[K-in-Boston]

The flexible spending credit card part doesn’t necessarily mean anything other than the card has Visa Signature or World or World Elite MasterCard features. It’s certainly possible to have a 27% APR Visa Signature card with a $500 limit. And then there’s the matter of the Bank of America BankAmericard. Mine is at $33,600 and DW’s is at $70,000 and both have more modest APRs in the teens. Both are listed as Credit Card and not Flexible Spending, but I’d hardly call them subprime cards.