Is it Legit?

[payin4mistakes]

I received a pre-approval from Direct Merchant's Bank for a Mastercard, $5000.00 Am I pre-approved if banks sent you an invitation offering credit? Should I risk an inquiry? Are my chances of getting a card better?

[catnap1972]

You're pre-approved to apply for it

Doesn't mean you're pre-approved to get it

[kb9tbq]

Pre approved just means when they contacted the CRA for a mailing list you met their initial criteria, but they still ultimately have the final desicion if they want to approve you in the end or not when they obtain the actual credit report at that time for review.

An example might be a company looking for people that are home owners and have a score over 650, so they purchase a mailing list - send out all the advertising and someone completes it and mails back. Then apon reviewing they see this one person had a bankruptcy and that to them is a disqualification even though the person was up above 650 they will turn them down.

Or they may accept this person but with adverse terms, like lower interest rate, or lower credit limit.

That is what it means to receive a pre screened credit card offer, you utimately have to weight in what you think your chances are and that is not an easy thing to guess on sometimes.

[vonniegirl]

I received a pre-approval from Direct Merchant's Bank for a Mastercard, $5000.00 Am I pre-approved if banks sent you an invitation offering credit? Should I risk an inquiry? Are my chances of getting a card better?

I agree with what the other members said. Please note that pre-approved up to 5,000.00 does not mean all will be approve for the max amount. Based on your report you may only get approved for 1,000.00 or 500.00.

With any of these offers you may want to think about opting out of the CRA selling your information. It will be a hard inquiry if you send in the application vs soft when they pulled it for pre=qualification.

See ya on the boards 8)