About Pre-Approval

When applying for a credit card, most people usually go straight to the application page for that card and submit an application directly. After you submit, the bank will generally check your credit profile, which results in a hard pull. Whether or not your application is approved, that hard pull still happens, which can affect your credit history and credit score. So when you get denied and also lose a few points for nothing, it can feel pretty frustrating.

So is there a way to see whether you might be approved for a credit card without affecting your credit score? Yes. That is exactly what banks’ pre-approval tools are for. In fact, pre-approval not only lets you check whether a bank is likely to approve your application, but sometimes it can also show targeted offers that are better than the standard public offer.

How Pre-Approval Works

Here is the typical process for applying through a pre-approval tool:

  • Go to the bank’s credit card pre-approval page
  • Fill in your basic information, such as your name, address, SSN, etc.
  • Submit the pre-approval form
  • The bank does a soft pull on your credit report (this does not affect your score, and only you can see this record)
  • Based on that report, the bank tells you whether you are pre-approved and, if so, for which specific credit card
  • You can choose to accept the offer. If you do, a hard pull will occur and your score may be affected, just like with a normal credit card application
  • You can also choose not to accept the offer and simply close the page, in which case your credit history and credit score will not be affected

Here, we will use Capital One’s pre-approval feature to walk through the process. Let’s say we want to apply for the Capital One Venture X with a 100,000-point welcome bonus.

Step 1: Go to the Venture X pre-approval link

  • The most important thing in this step is to make sure the page says pre-approve and mentions no risk to your credit score. If you see both, that means submitting the pre-approval form will not affect your credit score regardless of the result

Step 2: Fill in your personal information, including your SSN, ITIN, name, address, phone number, and email. Capital One’s pre-approval also asks for your income; you can enter your actual income or round it slightly up.

Step 3: Submit your pre-approval request

Step 4: Review the result

  • One possibility is that you are pre-approved, in which case you will see a page like the one below. The bank clearly tells you that you are pre-approved, and if you continue, you can move forward with getting the card directly.
  • If you accept, the bank will tell you that you are approved, then show your credit limit information, and possibly ask you to upload additional documents
  • If you are not pre-approved, you will see a page like the one below. Unfortunately, the bank is unable to pre-approve you. Of course, your credit score is not affected.

One important thing to note: even if pre-approval does not show any offer, you may still be approved if you apply directly. On the other hand, even if a bank pre-approves you, there is still a very small chance your actual application could be denied, though most of the time it goes through.

Each bank’s pre-approval system works a little differently. Next, let’s look at the major banks one by one.

Capital One

Capital One has one of the best pre-approval systems among major banks, and most of its credit cards have a pre-approval option. We strongly recommend checking pre-approval first instead of applying directly. After all, a Capital One application may pull all three bureaus, and if you do not pass pre-approval, there is a very high chance a direct application will not be approved either.

They also have a general link where you can check whether you are pre-approved for any of their cards.

After you submit, it will tell you which Capital One cards you are pre-approved for. If you agree to proceed, you will usually be approved right away. That said, this tool often recommends weaker entry-level cards, so in our view it is not that useful. It is usually better to use the pre-approval link for the specific card you want.

Chase

Chase pre-approval can also be quite useful. Its biggest feature is that pre-approval sometimes shows offers that are better than the public offer. For example, sometimes the public offer on the Sapphire Preferred is 125,000 points, while people who are pre-approved may see 175,000 points. However, the page may say earn up to, which likely means Chase determines your exact offer based on your credit profile and relationship with Chase, with 175,000 points being the maximum. Chase really picked up some bad habits from AMEX.

Chase also has a general pre-approval link. However, based on reports from some readers, Chase pre-approvals occasionally do not hold up, meaning that even if the site says you are pre-approved, your formal application could still be denied. Of course, if you plan to apply anyway, this does not make a huge difference.

AMEX

AMEX has separate pre-approval links for personal and business cards, but these links are not much different from the normal application links. If you are already an AMEX customer, you can just apply directly. For existing AMEX customers, applications are usually only soft pulls whether you are approved or not, so your credit score is not affected. That greatly reduces the usefulness of pre-approval in the first place.

Also, AMEX pre-approval only rarely shows better offers, so there is not much point in trying. Using incognito mode or switching your IP to find a better offer is more important.

It now appears that when new users apply, AMEX may first tell you whether you are approved, so that is effectively a form of pre-approval as well.

Other Banks

In my experience, the pre-approval tools from several other banks are not especially notable. Often they do not show any offer, and you may still be approved if you apply directly. They also generally do not produce higher bonuses. So I will just list the links here; you can try them before applying if you want a little extra confidence.