How to Get American Express Pre-Qualified Credit Card Offers (Links) [2020]

Are you looking to see if you’re eligible for American Express pre-qualify offers for credit cards?

This article will walk you through how to check for your American Express pre-qualified offers and show you some things you can do to increase your chances of getting an offer. 

I’ll also show links where you can get pre-qualified offers for other major banks like Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, etc. 

Update: Some offers are no longer available — click here for the latest deals!

What are American Express pre-qualified offers?

American Express pre-qualified offers are special credit card offers Amex allows you to pull up that usually mean you stand a good chance of getting approved.

They do not mean that you will be instantly approved and some people do get rejected even when applying for a pre-approved offer.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

How to check for American Express pre-qualified offers

You can check to see if you’re targeted for Amex qualified offers in four easy steps.

  • Step 1: Go to the Amex website 
  • Step 2: Click on “Check for Offers”
  • Step 3: Input your personal information
  • Step 4: Submit your information

 Step 1: Go to the Amex website

You can check for Amex pre-qualified offers by going to this link.

Step 2: Click on “Check for Offers”

Toward the top of the screen you should see a tab that says “Check for Offers.” Click on that.

Picture of the main login page for American Express
The main log-in page shows the link to check for offers.

Step 3: Input your personal information

You’ll need to input the following information:

  • Full name 
  • Address
  • Last four of your social security number 
Screenshot of the page asking for personal information
You will need to input your personal information to check for pre-qualified offers.

Step 4: submit your information

Once you input your information, click on the “View My Card Offers.”

If you’ve been pre-qualified then some offers should show up.

You could also try calling American Express and checking if there are any pre-qualified offers for you.

RSVP code offers

This is also the page where you can submit your RSVP codes to claim your targeted mailers. Sometimes American Express sends out special RSVP codes that allow you to access increased offers for credit cards. So don’t throw away mail from American Express!

CardMatch Tool

You can also try to bring up pre-qualified offers via the CardMatch tool. This is a third-party tool that performs a soft pull on your credit in order to show pre-approved offers. Just like pre-qualified offers for Amex, the offers that this tool provides are not guaranteed to be approved.

What cards can you get pre-approvals for?

I’m not exactly sure which Amex cards you can get pre-approvals for, as this is something that can change over time. But some cards that you might try to get pre-qualified offers are:

What credit score is needed for Amex pre-approvals?

It’s not 100% clear what credit score is needed for Amex pre-approvals but you’d generally want to get in the 700s for your best odds.

However, if your score is in the 600s then you can still definitely get pre-qualified offers. 

I’ve even seen reports of people getting pre-qualified offers with credit scores in the mid-600s.

Just remember that the lower your credit score, the lower your approval odds will likely be. At a certain point, it makes more sense to just focus on improving your credit score and putting off going for pre-approval offers, as tempting as they can be.

Does Amex perform a soft pull or hard pull?

Amex will perform a soft pull on your credit report when they conduct the pre-approval. 

They even state:

Check with confidence: this is not a Credit Card application and your credit score won’t be affected.

It seems that it’s becoming more and more common for Amex to perform soft pulls for their existing customers when they apply for cards.

It used to be that only soft pulls were done when an applicant was denied but now even some approvals are resulting in soft pulls.

You should always be prepared for a possible hard pull when applying for an Amex card but there’s definitely a possibility that you won’t have a hard pull if you’re already an Amex customer.

What’s the difference between a soft pull and a hard pull?

There’s a huge difference between a soft pull and a hard pull. 

A soft pull will not affect your credit score.

On the other hand, a hard pull will bring down your credit score.

How bad will your credit score be affected? 

The amount that your score will get brought down depends on your credit profile.

If you have a very established credit profile or a perfect credit score, the hard pull may only bring your score down a point (some say there might even be no effect).

On the other hand, if you have a very thin credit profile with a lower score, your score could go down over ten points.

In most cases, though, you’re looking at a 3 to 5 point drop due to a hard inquiry.

The good news is that your credit score will quickly go back up, usually in 60 to 90 days. After one year, the hard inquiries won’t have any effect on your FICO credit report and after two years it will fall off your credit report entirely.

What credit bureau will Amex pull?

If Amex does conduct a hard pull on your credit report, they will usually pull Experian, although it’s not guaranteed. If you want to learn more about which banks pull which credit bureaus you can read more about them here. You’ll find that there are certain trends with many issuers where they tend to pull one specific bureau.

What if I don’t have any offers?

If you don’t pull up any pre-qualified offers then don’t sweat it — plenty of people get approved even when no pre-approval offers come up for them.

I would probably check every three months or so to see if new offers popped up, but I wouldn’t be checking it on a daily basis.

Can Amex deny me?

As stated, just because you are pre-qualified, that does not mean that you will be approved.

There are plenty of data points out there of people getting pre-approved and then getting denied.

If you have a good credit score (720+), established credit history, and no blemishes on your credit report, I’d say your odds are very high of getting approved if you are pre-qualified. 

What if I get denied?

If you are a current Amex customer and you get denied for a credit card, there is usually only a soft pull on your credit report (unless there’s been a big change on your credit report).

However, some people have reported that they’ve applied for pre-qualified offers and after being denied, they noticed that Amex only performed a soft pull on their credit report. 

So if you get denied, there’s a possibility that your credit score won’t even be impacted if they don’t run a hard pull.

Targeted offers

American Express is also known for sending out valuable targeted offers.

If you want to receive targeted offers you can do these three things to improve your odds.

1. Don’t apply for any Amex cards

It seems that Amex likes to send out targeted offers to people who are not currently customers.

That’s not to say that current customers can’t receive targeted offers (they receive plenty) — it’s just that you might have an easier time coming across targeted offers when you have a great credit profile but are not currently a member of the Amex family.

2. Opt-in to Amex offers

To make sure you’re receiving offers from Amex, you need to make sure that you’re opted in to their marketing communications. You can go here to manage your communications with Amex. 

I chose to select all of the communications, just to ensure that I didn’t miss anything. However, you probably only really need to opt-in to “New Card and Credit Offers.”

How to opt-in to receive Amex credit card offers.

3. Opt-in to credit card offers

You should also make sure that you’re opted-in to receive pre-screened offers with the official Consumer Credit Reporting Industry. This would likely mean more junk mail overall but many times there will be some great offers that come through so it’s worth sifting through a bit of junk mail.

If you’re not currently opted-in you likely won’t receive any offers. You can do that here.

Amex Platinum 100K

The American Express Platinum is a fantastic card with many rich benefits and one very special targeted offers is the Amex Platinum offer with a 100,000 point welcome bonus.

The standard public offer is for 60,000 Membership Rewards after you spend $5,000 in the first 3 months so this offer is significantly higher and you can find out more about this offer here.

Amex Application Rules

American Express might send you out pre-qualified offers but it’s up to you to make sure that you’re not violating one of their key application rules. 

If you do violate these rules you’ll likely be denied.

Here are the most important Amex application rules that you should be aware of. If you would rather automate your eligibility for these rules just check out the new free app WalletFlo. 

Once per lifetime

American Express will typically limit you to only welcome bonus per lifetime.

In reality, there are ways to get around this. Sometimes Amex will send offers out that don’t contain the once per lifetime rules.

Multiple credit cards at once

Amex will generally not allow you to get approved for two credit cards at once — you usually need to wait about a week.

Some people still get lucky and are able to get approved for two cards at once but they are mostly outliers. Also, note that Amex this rule only applies to credit cards and not charge cards, so it’s possible to get approved for two charge cards at the same time.

2/90 rule

Amex will allow you no more than two credit cards within 90 days. Again, this rule only applies to credit cards.

Top 3 Amex cards

The Platinum Card from American Express

Top 10 Travel Credit Cards

The Platinum Card from American Express is one of my favorite travel rewards credit cards with its high welcome bonus, 5X on airfare and its lounge access benefits which are much better than virtually every other premium credit card.

 American Express Gold Card

The new Amex Gold Card is a very attractive option, too. The standard public offer is for 35,000 Membership Rewards but you can find referral offers that offer 40,000+ Membership Rewards.

But what really makes this card stand out are the bonus categories which are:

  • 3X on airfare 
  • 4X points at Restaurants
  • 4X points at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 in spend per calendar year)

The card also comes with a $120 dining credit, which offers a $10 monthly credit that can be used at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and Shake Shack (read more about that credit here). With the addition of a $100 airline credit, it’s very easy knock down the effective annual fee to just $30.

Amex EveryDay Preferred

  • Earn 50% more points 30 or more times on purchases in a billing period and
  • 3X at US supermarkets on up to $6,000 per year in purchases
  • 2X at US gas stations
  • $95 annual fee

The Amex EveryDay Preferred is one of the best cards for earning tons of Membership Rewards. If you do a lot of shopping at supermarkets this card will be one of the most valuable cards you can get. Earning 3X on up to $6,000 at US supermarkets is great but that 50% bonus can put the earnings over the top.

Other banks pre-approval options

American Express isn’t the only bank to offer pre-approvals for their credit cards.

Plenty of other major banks also offer pre-qualified offers.

Bank of America pre-qualified offers

Barclays pre-qualified offers

  • Barclays no longer allows you to check for your pre-qualified offers.

Capital One pre-qualified offers

Chase pre-qualified offers

You can read more about Chase pre-approvals here.

Citibank pre-qualified offers

Discover pre-qualified offers

HSBC pre-qualified offers  

  • HSBC used to have a pre-qualified checker but it is no longer available. 

US Bank pre-qualified offers

Final Word

Amex pre-qualified offers are nice because they can give you an idea about which Amex cards to go with and sometimes they even result in soft pulls that don’t even impact your credit when you’re denied.

But you don’t need to receive a pre-approval to get approved for a card. So I’d give it a shot to see if I had any pre-approvals but I’d be more focused on building a solid credit score so I could apply for some of the best Amex cards.

Chase Credit Card Pre-Approval: (How to get offers) [2020]

Chase credit card pre-approvals are very easy to check but there are some additional things you need to know about these offers. I’m going to first show you how to check for basic Chase credit card pre-qualified offers and then get into more advanced discussion about what a Chase credit card pre-approval is since that topic is less clear.

I’ll also give some tips on how to get some of these offers by taking specific actions. 

Interested in finding out the top travel credit cards for this month? Click here to check them out! 

Where to find Chase credit card pre-qualified offers

You can try this link or this link to check your pre-qualified offers from Chase’s official website. Simply enter your name, address, and the last four digits of your social security number and it should pull up any of your offers.

You can also try the CardMatch tool to see if any Chase pre-qualified offers pop up there.

Being pre-qualified does not mean that you can get around the 5/24 Rule (more on that below) and it also does not mean that you will be auto-approved. Your odds of approval are probably high (some say around 90% though that sounds high to me) but it will not guarantee you an approval.

Also, these offers are entirely separate from qualifying for a Chase pre-approval mortgage.

Chase credit card pre-approval
The Chase credit card pre-approval online page.

What Chase cards can I get pre-qualified for?

Chase has been known to offer pre-qualified offers for the:

(Keep reading below about pre-approval for other co-branded cards, such as the Southwest and United cards).

What if I’m not pre-qualified?

You can still get approved for a Chase credit card even if you are not pre-qualified for it. This is not uncommon so don’t sweat it if you’re not pre-qualified.

Does checking for Chase pre-qualified offers affect my credit?

No, Chase will perform a “soft-pull” which will not affect your credit score. A soft pull just means that your credit report is looked at but there are no hard inquiries performed that will reflect on your personal credit report. This is in contrast to a hard pull on your credit report which will affect your credit score — usually dropping your score a three to five points temporally.

Tip: Use WalletFlo for all your credit card needs. It’s free and will help you optimize your rewards and savings!

Let the confusion begin…

If you’re only concerned with checking pre-qualified offers, you’ve got all the info you need at this point. But if you want to find out about Chase credit card pre-approval offers (which might allow you to bypass 5/24) then keep reading.

The Chase 5/24 Rule

In case you’re not aware….

The Chase 5/24 Rule prevents you from being approved for certain Chase cards if you have opened up 5 or more accounts within the past 24 months. This can be a major hurdle for getting the some of best Chase cards like the Sapphire Preferred.

Some pre-approvals may allow you to bypass 5/24 so it’s a major thing to consider. If you’re trying to maximize credit card rewards, then checking for pre-approval offers with Chase is a must! 

Note: In addition to 5/24, there are other important restrictions to know about when applying for Chase credit cards. You can read more about those here. 

Chase credit card pre-approval vs. pre-qualified

Pre-qualified offers are those offers that you can find by checking the official Chase website link posted above. These offers could also show up when you log in to your Chase account or you could possibly receive an offer in the mail or via email.

Note that some people use the terms “pre-approval” and “pre-qualified” interchangeably. I like to use pre-approvals to describe offers that may allow you to get around the 5/24 rule. Meanwhile, pre-qualified offers are just those usually found online or in mailers.

Also, these are completely different from referral link offers that can be generated via the Chase refer a friend program. To learn more about how those referrals work click here.

Chase credit card pre-approval offers

Chase credit card pre-approval offers are those that are typically given in-branch but you can also receive mailers with pre-approvals. Pre-approvals differ from pre-qualified offers because they can allow you to get around the Chase 5/24 rule.  

You will typically need to go into an actual Chase branch (even if it’s our of your state) and be physically present to receive these pre-approvals. If you have a great relationship with a banker they might be able to do it for you remotely but that’s the exception.

Below are the various forms that pre-approvals have been found.

“Selected For You” offers

“Selected For You” offers are those found in in your Chase account when you log-in. These used to allow you to bypass the 5/24 rule and get approved. But this is no longer seems to be the case. 

Instead, I think these now act more like standard pre-qualified offers.

Update: The Selected For You Offers do appear to still bypass 5/24. 

Mailers

If a mailer is for a pre-approval, you should see see an invitation number in the top right corner of the document (or somewhere on the document). If that’s the case, you might be able to get around 5/24 but it’s still not a guarantee. However, if you’re not given a specific number or code then you will most certainly be subject to the 5/24 rule.  

Don’t get these confused with generic mailers that come in for cards like the Chase Southwest card. Those type of generic marketing mailers don’t do anything to get you around 5/24. Receiving them might mean your odds of approval are slightly better in some cases but it does not mean that you’ll be approved even if you are under 5/24.

In-branch pre-approvals

To receive an in-branch pre-approval visit a local Chase branch and ask a banker about pre-approval offers. If you’re already a customer you can just swipe a debit or credit card to bring up your account but you’ll probably need your driver’s license/ID if you’re new to Chase.

When you’re told that you’ve been pre-approved for an offer, request to see the terms of the pre-approval. If there is a single APR interest rate listed on the documents they give you, then you have been pre-approved for that card. But if they give you an APR range, that’s just a standard pre-qualified offer.

For example, if they print out a document with an APR range of 14.4% to 18.3% that’s not a pre-approved offer. But if they give you a document with a specific number (APR of 13.4%), then that means you are pre-approved. This is significant because a fixed interest rate pre-approval usually means you can get around the 5/24 Rule for that card.

But note: There are mixed data points recently emerging and it’s possible that these fixed interest rate in-branch pre-approvals won’t always allow you to circumvent the 5/24 rule.

Chase credit cards.

How to get pre-approval and pre-qualified offers

I don’t think anyone knows for sure who receives these offers. There are sporadic data points and accounts found in various forms and blogs that offer ideas about why you might receive a pre-approval. I’m not sure how valid some of these are but I don’t see a lot of downside to trying out some of these.

Opt-in

One thing you need to make sure that you have done is opt-in to receiving pre-screened offers. If you’re currently opted out there’s a chance you may have missed offers. You can opt-in by clicking here.

No recent Chase cards

There’s been speculation that if you’ve recently opened up new Chase cards within the past few months that your odds of being pre-approved go down significantly. Generally, it’s said that you should wait until 6 months after your latest Chase card approval before expecting a pre-approval though it could come sooner.

Update income

Some state that if you update your income when you log-in to your Chase account that you might trigger something in Chase’s system to activate a pre-approval.

Obviously, an update that goes up rather than down is probably going to increase your oddd best.

Authorized users

Some advise you to remove yourself as an authorized user of a Chase card if you’re hoping for a pre-approval for that same card.

Open a Chase bank account

It never hurts to keep a healthy bank account with a credit card issuer. In this case, having a checking or savings account with Chase might help to trigger an offer.

Large withdrawal

There’s also a “trick” that some swear by to get pre-approvals. With this trick you must withdraw a substantial sum of funds from a Chase account, such as around $30,000. After doing this, it’s thought that this kicks in a retention offer of sorts so Chase will send you an offer.

There may be a degree of validity to some of these but ultimately I think it depends a lot on your personal luck.

Chase pre-qualified cards

What cards can I get pre-qualified for?

Generally, pre-qualified offers and pre-approved offers only come around for Chase-branded credit cards. These are cards like the:

  • Chase Sapphire Preferred
  • Chase Freedom
  • Chase Freedom Unlimited and
  • Chase Slate.

You can also get pre-approved for some of the United credit cards and for business cards such as the Chase Ink (but you need to inquire specifically about business credit cards).

The Chase Sapphire Reserve used to have pre-approval in-branch but Chase took those away (though they should be coming back at some point). Also, I don’t believe that Chase offers pre-approvals for other co-branded cards, such as the Southwest credit cards.

One great thing about these pre-approvals is that sometimes they come with ever higher sign-up bonuses so it’s always worth giving them a shot.

Of course these things could always change.

Will offers disappear?

If you apply for a pre-approval offer, all of your other pre-approvals will likely vanish. You might see them again within a few months but you may not. If you’re over 5/24, then you need to really make sure that you’re making an informed choice of your pre-approval offer since you may not see it again.

Final word

Chase credit card pre-qualified and pre-approval offers are easy to check, whether online or in-branch. They generally mean you stand pretty good odds of being approved but it’s no guarantee and many are still subject to the 5/24 rule. And while there may be some ways to trigger for your pre-approval offer, it usually just comes down to luck so try not to stress over finding these offers.