Pre Approved Credit Cards

Pre approved credit cards come in the mail like rain from a monsoon and if a person does not act to stop them, the offers will keep arriving through the mail almost daily. No one should feel flattered that so many offers for pre approved credit cards come through the mail; after all, even those with recent bankruptcies can get a few offers for very high interest cards. The "pre approved" name implies that if a person says yes, he is assured that the card will be in the mail within a few days. In actuality, the pre approval means that you might be approved if the information the plastic card loan company has is up to date. Because borrowed money is so easy to get, a borrower's debt could rise dramatically almost overnight so in most cases, pre approval really means "we're dangling this card in front of you and if you pass our test you can have one and by the way, what color would you like?"

Pre approved credit cards and their distribution is based on a person's credit score and debt to income ratio. However, unlike many lending agreement types, pre approved credit cards can often go to those who have quite low credit scores. The catch is that the cards will have very high interest rates. The reason for receiving so many offers in the mail is that banks are constantly looking for new card holders to replace the ones they have lost through attrition or moving on to other companies with better offers. Often a person with a good history of paying on time can move balances around to new cards with very low introductory offers, thus being able to pay the balance down without having to pay very much interest. Banks often flood the mail with offers for new cards because the response rate to the offers is very low. Thus it becomes a numbers game for the banks, who know that less than three percent of all those on a mailing list respond so the mailings must be monsoon-like in numbers.

Since these offers can often clog a mailbox, they can become quite a nuisance. A person can call 1-888-567-8688 to have their name taken off the banks sweeps that often take place. These sweeps are used by banks to identify those with fair credit scores who might be willing to pay higher interest rates to have pre approved credit cards in hand or better yet, in wallet. In many cases, the pre approval tag simply means that the interest rate that is offered in the mailing will not be the rate that is finally offered. Many experts actually suggest that a customer who really needs a credit card and receives a preapproval invitation cut the mailing up and send it back to the bank asking for an even lower rate. Often times a bank will respond accordingly and approve a lower rate.

Most Americans are living pay check to paycheck because of high credit debt. In fact, seventy percent of Americans are doing so and much of this debt is through unsecured high interest pre approved credit cards. As a result, when an emergency arises and there is no discretionary income and no savings, financial disaster can quickly swallow the most strident of bill payers. The problem has been the greed of Americans to live above their income by means of easy credit with high interest rates. And the tidal wave of pre approved credit cards that swamp the mailbox almost daily are one of the reasons why the national debt is so high. Perhaps more people would be less inclined to be so far in debt for things that will one day decay and rot away if they took the advice of the apostle Paul. "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." (Colossians 3:2)

The pre approved plastic card offers that most people receive are invitations to high interest borrowed money. It is a fairly well known fact that a plastic card balance is structured in such a way that when only the minimum amount is paid each month, pay off of the loan can be as long as thirty years. There cannot be a good way to handle any plastic card accounts except to pay them off each month after using them. In that manner, the user can remain out of the stinging pain of seeing balances continue to rise each month, sometime meteorically.

Any plastic borrowing card, whether they are pre approved credit cards or ones that a person applies for, are extremely tempting to use because there is so much to buy! Many people use these wallet windows to the world for items that would be out of reach otherwise. Instead of doing the wise thing and saying no until the cash is available for the purchase, the unwise person uses the plastic to reward their desire for the immediate, but in so many cases, three months after the purchase is made the question arises, "Why did I do that?" Opening up a number of department store revolving loan accounts to get that extra ten percent or so off an item and never using them can also be a very credit damaging habit in which to get entangled. FICO scores or borrowing ratings can take a tumble when this sort of random open account activity is pursued.

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