Most people have noticed the abundance of “prescreened” credit card offers being thrown at them these days. These offers come to you in your mailbox, in your email box, as pop up ads online, and via telephone solicitors. With all of the available opportunities to apply for a credit card, it’s important to understand what exactly is involved in the application process and what information changes hands during when you apply for a credit card.
You reach in the mailbox and pull out one of many offers for a prescreened credit card. You’ve been preapproved! You’ve been prequalified! Understandably, you have questions? How did I get this offer? How do I respond to this offer? Is this for real? This is for real and it happens all the time. Credit card companies now solicit new credit card accounts via a peek into your credit report. Credit card companies request a listing of individuals who meet certain minimum credit criteria (such as a minimum credit score) from a credit reporting agency and then send prescreened offers to those individuals. For credit card companies, this is a great way to expand the pool of potential applicants who are exposed to their offers. For the consumer, there may be several benefits also.
Preapproved credit card offers do not lower your credit score as some may believe. Your credit report will reflect each peek into your credit history as an inquiry, but your credit will not be adversely affected. For individuals who may be in the market for a new credit card, prescreened offers are a great way to find out what types of cards are available. You will be able to select from offers for good, bad, or no credit consumers; low APR credit cards, 0% APR credit cards; and flexible and fixed rate credit cards. Consumers who are looking to transfer the balances of their high interest credit cards may find additional benefits in these prescreened offers.
For those individuals who are not looking for a new or additional credit card, and are looking to lighten their mailbox or their inbox, a quick visit to www.optoutscreen.com should do the job.
