Do credit card pre-approvals hurt your credit score?

Receiving a pre-screened offer or using a tool to check for pre-approval can be a great way to understand your credit card options. And getting pre-approved for a credit card typically won’t impact your credit scores.

Find out how the terms pre-approval, pre-qualify and pre-screen are used. Plus, learn how card issuers can check your eligibility without hurting your credit. 

What you’ll learn:

• Pre-approval can help take the guesswork out of your credit card applications. It can do that by giving you an idea of what cards you’re more likely to be approved for. 

• You might receive an offer from a credit card issuer if your financial profile and credit history match basic cardholder eligibility requirements. Or you could check whether you’re pre-approved on your own, often through an online experience.

• Credit card pre-approval doesn’t typically impact your credit scores because the process usually involves a soft credit inquiry.

• Applying for a credit card that you’re pre-approved for requires a hard credit inquiry, which could cause credit scores to drop temporarily.

Credit card pre-approvals let you check credit card offers from card issuers, often without harming your credit scores. You may see an option to get pre-approved when you’re looking at cards online. Or you may have gotten an invitation in the mail. 

If you’re trying to figure out what it all means, it’s important to remember a couple of things.

• Credit card issuers might use terms such as pre-approval, pre-qualification and pre-screening to refer to the process of letting people check for potential credit card offers. 

• Whether you checked yourself, were invited to check or received an offer, it usually means your credit history and reports have been reviewed and you match basic cardholder requirements. If you want to follow through with the credit card offer, you’ll still need to apply.

You can see if you’re pre-approved for Capital One credit cards by providing some basic information. It often takes about 90 seconds. And checking won’t impact your credit scores.

Checking for pre-approved credit card offers won’t hurt your credit. That’s because pre-approval typically involves a soft credit inquiry. Also known as a soft pull or soft credit check, a soft inquiry doesn’t affect your credit scores. It’s simply a way for lenders to determine whether you may qualify for their credit card offer.

If you apply for a credit card you’ve been pre-approved for, that usually will trigger a hard inquiry. Hard inquiries can remain on credit reports for two years. But they may not affect credit scores for that long. For example, FICO® credit scores only consider hard inquiries from the past 12 months. 

Even if the effect on your credit scores is temporary, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says, “Only apply for credit that you need.” Applying for many credit cards in a short period could hurt your scores and look bad to lenders.

Pre-approval can help take the guesswork out of your credit card search. If you know what credit card you’re likely to be approved for, you could avoid unnecessary hard inquiries—and a potential dip in your credit scores.

Boosting your credit scores can help you attract better credit card offers. Here are some habits that could help you increase your credit scores and pre-approval odds over time.

• Use credit responsibly. Responsible credit use includes making on-time payments, staying within your credit limits and not opening too many accounts at once.

• Stay under your credit limit. The CFPB recommends keeping your credit utilization ratio below 30%. This ratio is the amount of credit you’re using across all your revolving credit accounts compared to your total available credit.

• Dispute errors on your credit report. You don’t want inaccurate information harming your credit. If you find errors on your credit reports, dispute them with the credit bureau. 

Monitoring your credit can help you understand what else you can do to improve your score. You could use a tool like CreditWise from Capital One. CreditWise is free and available to everyone, even if you don’t have a Capital One card. And using CreditWise won’t hurt your credit scores.

You can also get free copies of your credit reports from each of the three major credit bureaus by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com.

If you’d rather not receive pre-approval offers, you can opt out for five years or permanently at optoutprescreen.com or by calling 888-5-OPT-OUT (888-567-8688).

Exploring pre-approved card offers can help you make an informed decision about whether to apply for a new credit card. And pre-approval typically won’t hurt your credit scores.

You can see if you’re pre-approved for a Capital One card without harming your credit.

New to credit or looking for your next credit card?

• Learn more about getting pre-approved for a Capital One credit card.

• Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every day with Quicksilver.

• Explore Capital One’s credit cards for building credit with responsible use.