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Offers for the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® card are not available through this site. Some offers may have expired. Please see our card marketplace for available offers
As credit card application rules tighten and welcome bonuses become harder to earn, it’s worth looking beyond standard application methods to find better offers.
One often-overlooked technique is positioning yourself for targeted credit card offers. These offers aren’t guaranteed, and results will vary, but there are ways to improve your chances.
Here are some ways that you can increase your odds of getting targeted credit card offers.
What Are Targeted Credit Card Offers?
Targeted offers are credit card promotions sent to specific individuals rather than made available to the general public. These offers may arrive via email, postal mail, or as pre-qualified offers when you log in to your bank or card account.
Over the past few years, we've seen reports of targeted offers on cards like the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (Rates & Fees) and the American Express Platinum Card®, as well as one of our favorite business cards, the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (Rates & Fees).
$99Rates & Fees
- Earn up to 26 points total per $1 spent when you stay at an IHG hotel
- 5X points per $1 spent on purchases on travel, gas stations, and restaurants
- 3X points per $1 spent on all other purchases
The earning for spending at IHG hotels breaks down as follows:
- Earn 10X points for being a IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card member
- Earn up to 6X points from IHG® with Platinum Elite Status, a benefit of having this card
- Earn up to 10X points from IHG® for being an IHG® One Rewards member (Being a cardholder is not required to earn this bonus for participating in the IHG® loyalty program)
$895Rates & Fees
(Terms apply)
- Earn 5X points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® (up to $500,000 in purchases per calendar year).
- Earn 5X points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel®.
- Earn 5X points on Fine Hotels + Resorts® and The Hotel Collection bookings.
$95Rates & Fees
- 3X points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year
- 1X point per $1 on all other purchases
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 responsibly, and are likely members of the rewards programs that they want to be targeted for.
Check Pre-Qualified Offers by Phone, Online, and In-Branch
If you have an existing relationship with a bank, it’s worth checking for pre-qualified offers. You can do this by logging in to your account, calling customer service, or visiting a branch.
A pre-qualified or pre-approved offer means the issuer has reviewed limited information about your credit profile — often through a soft credit check or internal data — and determined you may meet the criteria for a specific card. These offers are designed to highlight cards you’re more likely to be approved for without requiring a full application upfront.
For example, American Express and Chase may display targeted “pop-up” offers when you log in to your account online. Keep in mind that checking for pre-qualified offers is not the same as submitting an application.
Pre-qualified offers don’t guarantee approval. Issuers will still review your full credit report and financial details when you apply. However, these offers can signal strong approval odds.
Related: Everything to Know About the Amex Welcome Offer Eligibility Tool
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 communications. To get targeted credit card offers, make sure you’re opted in to receive emails and promotional mail from your banks and loyalty programs.
Physical mail can be especially valuable. In some cases, mailed offers may not include restrictive language that limits your eligibility for a welcome bonus, such as once-per-lifetime rules or waiting periods between bonuses. American Express, for example, has been known to send targeted offers that allow existing or previous cardholders to earn another welcome bonus on the same card.
You can typically find email and communication settings after logging in to your account and navigating to a section like:
Profile > Communication or Contact Preferences > Email and/or Promo Settings
Here's an example for opting into offers from Chase under “Personal details” in your account. These could be set to “No” by default, so double-check.
This process will differ between programs and may require some digging.
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 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 good example of this approach is a past offer on the Atmos™ Rewards Ascent Visa Signature® card. When initiating a booking on Alaska’s website, some users were shown an exclusive offer that included a $100 statement credit in addition to the standard welcome bonus.
Delta and American Airlines also frequently display credit card offers during the booking process. In some cases, these offers may be more competitive than those available publicly.
You may also encounter elevated offers when applying onboard a flight, so it can be worth comparing what's available before submitting an application.
Check for Targeted Offers With CardMatch
CardMatch is a tool that can help you find targeted offers. It gives you access to pre-qualified offers and possibly better welcome offers than those available to the public.
You’ll only need to put in some 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.
Hold Another Credit Card in the Same Rewards Family
Instead of canceling a credit card outright, consider downgrading to a no-annual-fee option or a card with a 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. To convince you, the card issuer may offer bonus points or miles that can rival some cards' 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 can also provide 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 which 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.
Page Contents
- What Are Targeted Credit Card Offers?
- Check Pre-Qualified Offers by Phone, Online, and In-Branch
- Opt-In to Email and Direct Mail Offers
- Sign Up for Rewards Programs and Add a Small Balance
- Initiate a Booking to Receive Better Offers
- Check for Targeted Offers With CardMatch
- Hold Another Credit Card in the Same Rewards Family
- Final Thoughts
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card (Rates & Fees), Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (Rates & Fees), and American Express Platinum Card® (Rates & Fees)
