A prequalification or preapproval check lets an issuer look at your credit with a soft inquiry and show the cards it might offer you. A soft inquiry does not affect your credit score. A real application usually adds a hard inquiry. Being prequalified is not approval. Citi says plainly that neither prequalification nor preapproval guarantees approval, and you still have to complete a full application.
Capital One: the preapproval page says checking your eligibility for card offers involves a soft inquiry that does not affect your score. Accepting an offer triggers a hard inquiry. Discover: the immigrant page on discover.com shows a "See if you're pre-approved" button. Discover pages now carry Capital One branding. Chase: its education pages link to a "See if you're pre-approved" check. Citi: its education pages point to its prequalification tools. American Express: "Apply with Confidence" tells you whether you are approved before the hard inquiry is made, on eligible cards. Bank of America: a customized offers page exists; that URL comes from third-party reports and we did not load it ourselves.
U.S. Bank: third-party sites disagree on whether a public prequalification page exists right now, so we cannot confirm one. Barclays: a prescreen page has appeared on and off, sometimes for only one cobranded card. Wells Fargo: according to Bankrate, there is no public prequalification page, and offers appear only after you sign in. If you already bank with Wells Fargo or U.S. Bank, sign in and look for card offers in your account.
Capital One's preapproval page says a credit freeze or lock at any bureau makes you ineligible for its consumer cards, because it cannot access your credit. It also lists two reasons you may be ineligible for some products: you were recently approved for a Capital One card, or you applied for a Capital One card two or more times in the past 30 days. Lift any freeze at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion before you check.
Run the check with the same name, address and income you will put on the application. Write down which cards were shown. Apply only when the card you want shows up, and expect a hard inquiry when you do. A card that does not appear can still be applied for, but you lose the early signal. Read the issuer's bonus terms too, since prequalification says nothing about whether you will receive a welcome bonus.
Capital One preapproval: https://www.capitalone.com/apply/credit-cards/preapprove/; Citi, What does prequalified mean: https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/understanding-credit-cards/what-does-prequalified-mean-for-a-credit-card; Chase, How to see if you're pre-qualified: https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/education/basics/how-to-see-if-youre-pre-qualified-for-card; American Express, Apply with Confidence: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/credit-cards/credit-intel/amex-apply-with-confidence/; Discover, Credit cards for immigrants: https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/card-smarts/credit-cards-for-immigrants/; Bank of America customized offers (third-party reported URL): https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/customized-offers/find-customized-offer.go; Bankrate on Wells Fargo preapproval: https://www.bankrate.com/credit-cards/issuers/how-to-get-pre-approved-for-wells-fargo-cards; Experian, Hard inquiry vs. soft inquiry: https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/hard-inquiry-vs-soft-inquiry/
No. Capital One, Citi and Experian all describe prequalification checks as soft inquiries, and soft inquiries do not affect credit scores.
Not necessarily. Citi states that neither prequalification nor preapproval guarantees approval. The issuer decides after the full application.
When you submit a full application or accept an offer. Capital One says accepting a card offer triggers a hard inquiry. Amex Apply with Confidence shows the decision before the hard inquiry on eligible cards.
Its page lists a credit freeze or lock at any bureau, a recent Capital One approval, or two or more Capital One applications in the past 30 days.
⚠️ About this data: Where we have checked a card's annual fee, APR and foreign-transaction fee, the page shows the date and the source. Welcome offers, rewards and benefits change often, so the issuer's own site is the final word. Approval is decided by the issuer. Nothing here is financial advice.