18 Credit Card Pre-Approval Links (Dec. 2023)

Shopping for a credit card isn’t quite as exciting as going shopping with a credit card — but you can’t do one without the other. And both require a bit of research and rational thinking if you want to avoid making a bad financial decision that could haunt you for years.

Thankfully, many major credit card issuers offer pre-qualifying applications that make it easier to narrow your choices and limit the hard inquiries placed on your credit report. And what’s even better, pre-applying for a credit card using one of these applications won’t hurt your credit rating.

Let’s take a look at a wide range of credit card pre-approval links from some of the most well-known issuers in the US Our list also includes credit cards with consumers in mind who have less-than-stellar credit.

Capital One is among the most prolific credit card issuers in America, with more than 100 million cards in circulation. But just because everyone seems to have a Capital One card doesn’t mean the credit card company approves every applicant.

Instead of blindly applying for any Capital One card, you’re better served if you pre-qualify for one of the issuer’s offerings. The brief application requires basic information to identify the applicant — name, address, date of birth, and Social Security number.

You can also choose which type of card most interests you — be it a travel rewards, cash back, or low-interest rate card. You don’t have to answer this question if you have no preference. Just remember that Capital One limits consumers to only two cards from the issuer, so if you already have a pair of the company’s cards, you’ll likely receive a rejection for any application you submit.

Capital One will let you know if you pre-qualify for any of its cards a few moments after submitting your application. You’ll see which card(s) match your credit profile and the benefits related to each offering.

By doing this, you’ll limit your applications — and research — to only the cards you’re likely to be approved for. You may receive approval for one of our top-rated Capital One credit cards — which offer competitive interest rates and rich rewards. Check them out below.

+ See More Capital One Cards

Discover is one of the fastest-growing credit card issuers in America, thanks to its top-notch customer service ratings. Offering rich rewards is nothing new to Discover, as it was the first true rewards credit card when Sears launched the brand in 1986.

The issuer’s pre-qualifying application is a little longer than the average form. Discover asks about your current income, living situation, and bank account status, but the information helps the company decide which cards to match you with.

If the bank does approve you for one of its credit cards, you could end up reaping some huge rewards — like the ones offered by our top-rated cards below.

+ See More Discover Cards

Many consumers choose Chase cards because of the ultra-attractive Chase Ultimate Rewards program, which gives cardholders a wide array of rewards options that range from travel to cash back and merchandise.

Chase has notoriously high standards for approval, which makes pre-qualifying a smart decision. But Chase requires you to sign in to your Chase account to “Browse offers selected for you based on your relationship with Chase.” If you don’t already have a relationship with the bank, you can create an account and see which card offers it suggests, if any.

Not only will you need good-to-excellent credit for Chase to consider your application, (unless you’re a student, in which case you may qualify for the Chase Freedom® Student credit card without a credit history) but you’ll also have to pass the issuer’s 5/24 rule.

This rule states that if you have opened five or more new bank card accounts (credit or charge cards) within the last 24 months, you’ll most likely be rejected when applying for a new Chase credit card — even if you otherwise qualify.

Here are the issuer’s three most popular rewards cards, along with links to each card’s easy online application:

+ See More Chase Cards

While most credit card issuers arm wrestle with each other to see who offers the richest rewards, Citi has quietly built a reputation for offering cards that help consumers eliminate debt fast while reducing interest fees and other charges.

This is most evident in the Citi Simplicity® Card, which offers an unheard-of introductory 0% interest period on balance transfers, though a balance transfer fee will apply. If you have an existing credit card balance that’s only growing because of interest charges, Citibank may have the solution to help you knock the debt out faster and more cheaply.

And Citi also has one of the easiest pre-qualifying applications to complete. Simply provide your name, address, and the last four digits of your Social Security number, and the bank will show you all of its cards that you may qualify for.

Those cards could include the popular offering above, or maybe another of our top-rated choices listed below.

+ See More Citibank Cards

American Express is known for being an ultra-selective credit card issuer. You must have at least good credit to qualify for any of its cards — there are no student offers or cards for bad credit available. But you can check to see if you pre-qualify for any of its cards on its website in as little as 30 seconds.

American Express is also known for issuing charge cards, which are credit cards with no preset spending limit. These cards must be repaid in full each month unless you select purchases to repay over time — with interest — in the app or on the issuer’s website.

Amex has lucrative signup bonuses and rewards card offers, not to mention a great lineup of business credit card options. Below are our expert’s top-rated Amex cards, all available to consumers with good to excellent credit:

13. The Platinum Card®

at the issuer'ssecure website

CATEGORY RATING

★★★★★

4.9

OVERALL RATING

4.7/5.0

• Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® points after you use your new card to make $6,000 in purchases in your first 6 months of Card Membership
• Earn 5X Membership Rewards® points for flights booked directly through airlines or American Express Travel, on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year. Also earn 5X Membership Rewards® points on prepaid hotels on AmexTravel.com. Earn 1X points on all other purchases.
• $200 annual hotel credit, $200 annual airline fee credit, $25 monthly Equinox credit, $15 monthly Uber cash credit, $50 bi-annual Saks Fifth Avenue credit, and more.
• Platinum Card Members have unlimited complimentary access to all locations of The Global Lounge Collection, including 1,400 airport lounges across 650 cities.
• Automatic Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status and Hilton Honors Gold Status. Enrollment required.
• Choose among three card designs

• See application, terms and details.

See Rates & Fees

Intro (Purchases)	Intro (Transfers)	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Credit Needed
N/A	N/A	20.49% - 27.49% Pay Over Time	$695	Excellent

14. American Express® Gold Card

at the issuer'ssecure website

CATEGORY RATING

★★★★★

4.8

OVERALL RATING

4.8/5.0

• Earn 60,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $4,000 on purchases on your new card in your first 6 months of card membership
• Earn 4X Points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases. Also earn 4X Points at restaurants, including takeout and delivery, and 3X points on flights when booked directly with airlines or on amextravel.com. All other eligible purchases earn 1X point.
• No foreign transaction fees
• Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the Gold Card at Grubhub, Seamless, Boxed and other participating partners. This can be an annual savings of up to $120. Enrollment required.
• Delight your senses when you book The Hotel Collection with American Express Travel. Get a $100 experience credit to use during your stay. A minimum 2-night stay is required.
• $250 Annual Fee

• See application, terms and details.

See Rates & Fees

Intro (Purchases)	Intro (Transfers)	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Credit Needed
N/A	N/A	20.49% - 28.49% Pay Over Time	$250	Excellent

15. Business Platinum Card® from American Express

at the issuer'ssecure website

CATEGORY RATING

★★★★★

4.8

OVERALL RATING

4.6/5.0

• Earn 120,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with your Card within the first 3 months of card membership
• Earn 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights and prepaid hotels on amextravel.com, 1.5X points on business categories and purchases of $5,000 or more on up to $2 million per calendar year, and 1X point for each dollar you spend on other purchases.
• Get up to $400 back per year toward U.S. purchases with Dell Technologies, up to $360 back per year for purchases with Indeed, and $120 back per year for wireless telephone service purchases on the Business Platinum Card, plus additional credits. Enrollment is required for all.
• Access to more than 1,400 lounges across 140 countries and counting with the American Express Global Lounge Collection®
• Use Membership Rewards® Pay with Points for all or part of an eligible fare and get 35% of those points back, up to 1,000,000 points back per calendar year
• $695 Annual Fee

• See application, terms and details.

See Rates & Fees

Intro (Purchases)	Intro (Transfers)	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Credit Needed
N/A	N/A	18.74% - 26.74% Pay Over Time	$695	Excellent

+ See More Amex Cards

If you have bad or no credit, pre-qualifying for a credit card may be the most important part of your research process. That’s because every official credit card application you submit places a hard inquiry on your credit report. These inquiries signal to lenders that you’re looking for a loan or line of credit.

That may seem harmless enough, but if you accrue several of these marks on your credit file, lenders may see you as a higher credit risk.  Each inquiry can bring your credit score down — and a lower credit score makes it even harder to qualify for a credit card.

Most credit scoring models allow two or three hard inquiries on your credit report over a two-year period. But more than that will negatively affect your score.

On the other hand, a prequalifying application only uses a soft inquiry, which doesn’t affect your credit score and will give you a better idea of the cards you may qualify for.

Several credit card issuers work with consumers who want to improve or establish their credit scores. Thankfully, many also offer pre-qualifying applications to make the approval process faster and less painful.

Check out our top options below for more cards that make it easier to rebuild — or establish — your credit profile.

2. Reflex® Platinum Mastercard®

at Continental Finance'ssecure website

BAD CREDIT RATING

★★★★★

4.4

OVERALL RATING

3.9/5.0

Our Review »

• Up to $1,000 credit limit doubles up to $2,000! (Simply make your first 6 monthly minimum payments on time)
• See if you’re Pre-Qualified with no impact to your credit score
• All credit types welcome to apply
• Access to your Vantage 3.0 score from Experian (When you sign up for e-statements)
• Initial Credit Limit of $300 – $1,000 (subject to available credit)
• Monthly reporting to the three major credit bureaus

• See application, terms and details.

Intro (Purchases)	Intro (Transfers)	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Credit Needed
N/A	N/A	29.99% APR (Variable)	$75 - $125	Bad, Fair, or No Credit

3. Mission Lane Visa® Credit Card

at Mission Lane'ssecure website

BAD CREDIT RATING

★★★★★

4.7

OVERALL RATING

4.2/5.0

Our Review »

• $0 Annual Fee. Clear terms and transparent pricing.
• See if you qualify instantly without harming your credit score.
• Be automatically considered for a higher credit line in as few as 7 months.
• Free, online credit score access for cardholders.
• No interest on purchases when you pay in full and on time each month.
• No security deposit required – get started today!
• Enjoy coverage from Visa®.
• Access your account anytime, anywhere with our mobile app.
• If you are charged interest, the charge will be no less than $0.50.

• See application, terms and details.

Intro (Purchases)	Intro (Transfers)	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Credit Needed
N/A	N/A	29.99-33.99% Variable	$0	Fair

+ See More Credit Cards for Bad Credit

When shopping for a credit card, you’re best served by looking at issuers that offer pre-approval applications instead of specific cards that do the same. That’s because an issuer’s application may link you with several cards that you qualify for.

And like most things in life, there’s strength in numbers.

Take, for example, Capital One. By filling out the bank’s pre-approval application, you could receive several offers and then decide which one best matches your needs. If you go into your research with your heart set on one specific card, you increase the chance of being disappointed if you don’t qualify for that card.

Your best first step is to decide what matters most to you in a credit card. From there, you can decide which issuer offers the best options to fit your desires and attempt to pre-qualify with that bank.

If you’re looking for rewards, you may decide to pre-apply with Chase or Discover. If you need a good balance transfer card, or a card with a longer 0% introductory period, then you may want to consider Citi. Whichever you choose, keep your options open.

Both terms sound very different but have very similar meanings.

Once upon a time, pre-approved meant the credit card issuer reviewed a soft pull of your credit report and would offer you a credit card if you decided to apply. That’s no longer the case.

Credit card issuers purchase large batches of consumer data from credit reporting bureaus. They use their filters to decide which consumers might meet their minimum standards for approval. They may give specific criteria to the bureau and receive several thousand credit files that meet those criteria. That’s how they choose who receives those pre-approval letters in the mail.

But they don’t actually guarantee approval — pre-approval is more of an invitation to apply for a credit card. It’s the issuer’s way of saying “You look like you might be a good match for our card. Feel free to apply, and we’ll see if we’re right.”

An issuer can’t guarantee approval, though, until they get to examine your full credit file. And that can’t happen until you apply.

So, even though you may think you’re pre-approved, the issuer could see something when it pulls your credit report that wasn’t visible before. And that could lead to a rejection or less attractive terms than what your pre-approval letter offered.

Still, many experts say that getting a pre-approval offer means you have around a 90% chance of receiving the card if you apply.

A pre-qualifying offer is very similar, but just as uncertain when it comes to approval. Credit card issuers send out millions of such letters each year, but only a percentage of the consumers who receive them will actually qualify for the card that’s offered.

That’s because the credit profile data used to determine pre-qualifications is far broader than the information used for pre-approvals. An issuer may purchase a batch of credit profiles, for example, with credit scores between 650 and 800, and send offers to everyone on the list.

Or, the issuer may apply a filter for consumers who haven’t had a late payment in the last three months. All of this information is useful, but not definitive.

No, credit card pre-approval does not affect your credit scores. Credit card pre-approval is done through a soft pull of your credit report, which does not appear on your credit history.

If you decide to apply for the card after receiving pre-approval, you will obtain a hard inquiry, which will appear on your credit history and may affect your credit score for up to one year, but only by a few points. The fear of obtaining a hard inquiry isn’t reason enough to avoid applying.

That’s because the new credit limit you receive upon approval may improve your credit, so you may not feel any negative effects from the inquiry. An increase in the amount of credit available to you can help lower your credit utilization if you have other credit card debt, or it may broaden your credit mix if this is your first credit card.

The possible effects of obtaining a credit card are unique to each consumer’s financial situation, we can’t definitively say this or that will happen — it’s all based on your unique credit history.

As stated above, pre-approval is far from a guarantee. Any offer you receive comes from the version of your credit file the lender viewed — which often happens a month or two before you receive the offer.

A lot can happen in two months. If you’ve experienced any major changes to your credit score during that time, it could greatly impact your chances of final approval.

Even if your credit report doesn’t change in that time frame, you could still find yourself with a rejection, despite the pre-approval. That’s because the issuer doesn’t always examine every part of the soft credit pull before sending you an invitation to apply.

For example, the issuer may look for consumers who haven’t missed a payment in six months. That could trigger tens of thousands of letters sent to consumers across the country. But when one applies, and the issuer sees that he or she has three maxed-out credit cards, it likely won’t end in an offer.

That’s why pre-qualifying applications are helpful — when used with caution. On one hand, it could help you avoid rejection when it comes time to officially apply for a card. On the other, it could give you a false sense of confidence that you’ll receive a specific card that you may not otherwise qualify for.

The best way to truly gain confidence in your credit report is to view it yourself. The government allows every consumer one free credit report each year from each credit reporting bureau. While these reports won’t show you your actual credit score, they will show you all of the vital information that credit card issuers see when reviewing your application.

Make certain that your reports are up-to-date and only display accurate information before applying for a new credit card. Think of your application as a blind date. The credit card issuer doesn’t know who you are or what you look like — but you can spruce yourself up a bit and look better by knowing where your credit report stands and doing what you can to improve it before presenting yourself to the bank.

Credit cards are like cookies. Cookies are yummy and easy to eat, but hard to put down. Credit card applications have a similar effect. If you’ve been rejected, you may feel tempted to apply for another card.

But, like cookies, the more applications you submit, the less satisfying the results. You can avoid collecting hard inquiries on your credit report by filling out a pre-qualifying application to the issuer of your choice. Not only will it give you a clearer picture of your finances, but it’ll keep those pesky inquiries at bay.