What Credit Score Do I Need to Prequalify for a Credit Card?

Everyone wants to have a credit card these days, but that becomes challenging for individuals who don’t fulfill the required eligibility criteria. Along with the age and income requirements, you also need to have a good credit score to qualify for a credit card. If you are trying to get a credit card, you might have surely heard of prequalified credit cards and you may be wondering how to know whether you prequalify for a credit card or not. Though there are no fixed eligibility criteria to get prequalified for a credit card, a few factors might play an important role here. In this article, we will help you understand what prequalified cards actually mean and what are the minimum credit score requirements for these cards. Keep reading for further information:

What is Credit Score?

A credit Score is a 3-digit number that determines the creditworthiness of an individual. It generally ranges between 300 and 900, where a score of 300-600 is considered a poor/average score, and above 700 is a good credit score. Whenever you apply for a credit card, the issuer checks for your credit score and their decision depends upon how good or bad your credit score is. The higher your credit score is, the higher are the chances for your credit card application getting approved.

Now, you might be wondering how this credit score is calculated. There are various factors that are considered while calculating your credit score. These factors include an individual’s payment history, credit utilization ratio, the average age of accounts, credit mix, and the number of hard inquiries on their credit report.

What Does a Pre-Qualified Credit Card Mean?

People often consider prequalified credit cards as approved credit cards, i.e, if they receive an email saying that ‘you are prequalified for xyz credit card,’ they start believing that they have been approved for that credit card. But, that is not the reality. Prequalified Credit Card only means that you fulfill the basic eligibility requirements to apply for that credit card and there are certain chances that you will get approved for it. These emails can also be promotional and sometimes they have nothing to do with your eligibility. If you ever entered your contact details on any card issuer’s official website or if you applied for their credit card in the past, the bank/issuer will keep sending you emails to accelerate their credit card applications. It doesn’t mean that everyone who have received an email would get the credit card.

What is the Minimum Credit Score Required To Prequalify For a Credit Card?

There is no fixed credit score requirement to prequalify for a credit card as prequalification just tells you that you may be eligible for a particular credit card. However, not having a credit history at all may impact your prequalification. It is because you generally start getting prequalified credit card offers once you start building your credit with some sort of credit cards/loans or buy now pay later options. So, if you do not have a credit score, you might not get any prequalified credit cards to offer. What you can do is start building your credit by taking a small personal loan or by using BNPL options, such as Amazon Pay later, Flipkart Pay later, etc. Once you build an average credit score using any of these options, you will start getting credit card offers on your email and you can then apply for these cards.

However, these offers don’t guarantee the approval of your application. So, you should check the eligibility criteria, fees and charges, and rewards of a credit card before you blindly apply for it. You may get plenty of prequalified credit card offers, but you should apply only for those which seem to suit your needs. Sometimes prequalified cards come with exclusive additional offers and you can go for it if these offers excite you.

Read More: Does Having Multiple Credit Cards Affect Your Credit Score?

Bottom Line

Prequalified Credit Cards don’t guarantee you the approval of your credit card application, but you may consider applying for them if the offer seems to be very advantageous. But, it is never a good idea to apply for every card for which you have received a prequalification email. It will increase the number of hard inquiries on your credit profile which would further impact your credit score negatively. Just make sure that you take every financial step carefully and make wise decisions. If you have any further doubts, feel free to ask us in the comment section below!