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As credit card application restrictions evolve and new cardmember bonuses become harder to come by, it’s essential we look past the most common methods of applying for cards to secure the best deals. An often overlooked technique is to position yourself for targeted credit card offers. Of course, these aren’t guaranteed techniques, and you may not receive the same offers as others. These are just tips to increase your chances of getting offers.
Targeted offers can come via email, postal delivery, or pre-qualified offers from your bank or credit provider. Over the past few years, we've seen reports of targeted offers on cards like the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card and The Platinum Card® from American Express, as well as one of our favorite business cards, the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
Banks and loyalty programs regularly target customers with personalized credit card offers. These can include increased bonuses over what's publicly available, bonus points for upgrading to a higher-tier card within the same card family, or bonus points for reaching tiered spending challenges. Offers can be targeted to anyone, anywhere.
Each credit provider uses different metrics to determine who is targeted, but suitable candidates usually have an excellent credit score and clean credit history, are actively using revolving credit already (and responsibly), and likely are members of the rewards programs that they want to be targeted for.
Here are some ways that you can increase your odds of getting targeted credit card offers.
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Check Pre-Qualified Offers by Phone, Online, and In-Branch
Any bank or financial institution with whom you have an existing relationship is a good candidate to check for pre-qualified offers. You can do this by calling up your bank, checking online when signed into the customer portal, or calling/visiting a branch and talking to a banker in person. Checking for pre-qualified offers from your bank is not the same as applying for a credit card.
It’s important to note that pre-qualified offers don’t guarantee your application will be successful. The credit provider will still pull your credit report and perform standard financial due diligence on your application. The lender may, however, make exceptions to its internal application rules or restrictions for pre-qualified candidates.
Opt-In to Email and Direct Mail Offers
One reason you may not receive targeted credit card offers is if you've opted out of email and postal promotions. To get targeted credit card offers, you need to be signed up to receive offers from the banks.
The problem with opting out is you’re potentially leaving hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars on the table. If you spend large sums on your cards and pay your balance each month, you’re a valuable customer. Credit providers want you to sign up for their products. Ensure you register to receive emails and promos from every loyalty program you participate in and financial institution you bank with.
One of the most significant benefits of checking your physical mail is that offers occasionally will exclude restrictive language that prevents you from obtaining a signup bonus a second time or within a specified timeframe.
You can typically find email and communication settings after signing into your account and navigating to something along the lines of:
Profile > Communication or Contact Preferences > Email and/or Promo Settings
Here's an example for opting into offers from American Airlines AAdvantage:
However, this process will differ between programs.
Check for Targeted Offers With CardMatch
CardMatch is a site that can help you find different kinds of targeted offers. CardMatch gives you access to prequalified offers and possibly better welcome offers than those available to the public.
You’ll only need to put in a little bit of information about yourself and your finances to get started. The best part is that CardMatch only does a soft pull, so checking offers here won’t affect your credit score.
Sign-Up for Rewards Programs and Add a Small Balance
Another method for receiving targeted offers is signing up for a rewards program and adding a small balance of points or miles. Transferring the minimum number of points across from a flexible currency like Ultimate Rewards or Marriott Bonvoy, crediting miles when flying another airline within the same alliance, or even making a purchase through the program's shopping portal is usually enough.
Loyalty programs want to see you investing in their points or miles before sending you lucrative offers. Again, this is not science or official policy, but it's a method that has worked for some. Of course, these methods are still subject to the banks' application rules.
Initiate a Booking To Receive Better Offers
A great example of this approach in action was a past offer on the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® credit card. If you initiated a booking on Alaska’s website, you’d receive an exclusive online offer that included a $100 statement credit in addition to the welcome bonus of Alaska miles. Delta and American Airlines also show credit card offers regularly during the process of booking a flight.
Hold Another Credit Card in the Same Rewards Family
Rather than canceling a credit card, if you've decided it no longer works for you, find an option to keep it open while downgrading to a card with no annual fee or a much lower annual fee. Why? You may receive targeted offers to upgrade that card later on, as the bank hopes to entice you into a more premium credit card product with a higher annual fee and more benefits. To convince you, the card issuer may offer bonus points or miles that can rival some card's welcome bonuses.
Obviously, you can't receive an upgrade offer from one Hilton card to another if you don't have any Hilton credit cards. If you're interested in future upgrade offers like this, keeping at least one card open in each rewards family can make sense.
Final Thoughts
Targeted credit card offers provide an opportunity to bag higher-than-average credit card bonuses. They also can help you get offers for extra points on cards you already have. But to ensure you get these offers, you need to register to receive promos from every loyalty program and bank with whom you have an existing relationship.
A few members of our Facebook community, Award Travel 101, have reported getting their recent applications matched to higher, targeted offers after contacting the bank via phone or secure message. In some cases, they didn’t even know that they were eligible for such an offer.
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