My FICO logo $$$$$$$$$$$ 9876 5432 1234 5678 CREDIT CARD KELLY SMITH 11/26 My FICO logo
SCORE
Skip Navigation
  • Why FICO
  • How It Works
  • Pricing
  • Education
  • Community
  • Support
  • Member Dashboard
  • Log In Log Out
  • Start Plan
 
  • Why FICO
  • How It Works
  • Pricing
  •  
  • Education
    • Credit Education
    • Credit Scores
    • What Is a FICO Score?
    • FICO Scores vs Credit Scores
    • FICO Scores Versions
    • New FICO Scores
    • How Scores Are Calculated
    • Payment History
    • Amount of Debt
    • Length of Credit History
    • Credit Mix
    • New Credit
    • How to Improve Your Score
    • How to Build Credit
    • Credit Reports
    • What's in Your Report
    • Credit Bureaus
    • Inquiries
    • Errors on Your Report?
    • Blog
    • Calculators
    • Loan Savings
    • Vehicle Payments
    • How Much Can I Borrow?
    • Should I Consolidate My Credit Cards?
    • Know Your Rights
    • Identity Theft
    • FAQ
    • Glossary
  • Community
  • Support
  • Member Dashboard
  • Log In Log Out
  • Our Products
    • Ongoing Credit Monitoring Track your FICO® Score & identity
    • One-time Credit Reports Be prepared for important transactions
  • How Can We Help
    • Monitor Credit & Identity
    • Mortgages
    • Credit Cards
    • Auto Loans
  • Credit Education
  • Community
  • Support
  • Our Products
    • Ongoing Credit Monitoring Track your FICO® Score & identity
    • One-time Credit Reports Be prepared for important transactions
  • Credit Education
  • Credit Scores
    • What Is a FICO Score?
    • FICO Scores vs Credit Scores
    • FICO Score Versions
    • New FICO Scores
    • How Scores Are Calculated
    • Payment History
    • Amount of Debt
    • Length of Credit History
    • Credit Mix
    • New Credit
    • How to Improve Your Score
    • How to Build Credit
  • Credit Reports
    • What's in Your Report
    • Credit Bureaus
    • Inquiries
    • Errors on Your Report?
  • Blog
  • Calculators
    • Loan Savings
    • Vehicle Payments
    • How Much Can I Borrow?
    • Should I Consolidate My Credit Cards?
  • Know Your Rights
  • Identity Theft
  • FAQ
  • Glossary
View all Credit Cards articles

How to Evaluate a Credit Card Offer You Received in the Mail

Always review credit card offers before applying. Check for a reputable card issuer, competitive APR, benefits, rewards, and no confusing fine print.

Photo by Abstrakt Xxcellence Studios on Pexels

If you've recently received a pre-approved credit card offer via mail or email, chances are you're at least a little interested. Most offers are designed to grab your attention by highlighting all the perks front and center. No matter how enticing an offer seems, you should always check the fine print before applying to make sure you've reviewed both the good and the bad. Here's how you can decide whether to take the card offer or send it straight to the shredder.

Check the card issuer

Before you dig any deeper, confirm that the card offer is from a legitimate and reputable bank. If you've never heard of the company, a quick internet search can give you some background. While you're browsing, read through a few reviews to get an idea of whether other customers like or dislike that bank. Lots of negative reviews are a sign that you don't want to do business with that card issuer.

Determine the cost

Consider the annual fee, interest rate, and cost of transactions you plan to make. If you travel internationally, check whether the card will add a foreign transaction fee to your purchases. For balance transfer credit cards, check the balance transfer fee, even if the card has a promotional rate. And if the card has a promotional offer that you're considering, the timing matters. A competitive promotional rate will typically last between 12 and 18 months.

Preview the perks

Credit cards with the best perks tend to carry an annual fee, but that's not necessarily a dealbreaker. The fee may be worth paying, particularly when the benefits offset the fee. For instance, paying a $95 annual fee on a card that waives airline checked baggage fees will pay off after just two flights where you check your bags.

On the other hand, a card can be packed with perks and be a bad card for you. Evaluate the benefits against your current lifestyle to be sure you can take advantage of them. It's not worth paying an annual fee for amazing features that you'll never use.

Look at the rewards

Consider how easily you can earn rewards based on the program and your typical spending. Cash rewards are more versatile than miles or points, but miles and points are still valuable as long as they're easy to earn and easy to redeem. The offer is less attractive, however, if you have to spend more money to earn a decent amount of rewards.

Consider your credit

A pre-approved offer doesn't mean guaranteed approval. It only means that the card issuer thinks you may qualify based on its prescreening. Once you complete an application, the card issuer will do a full credit check and approve or deny your application. You could be denied for a variety of reasons, for instance, if your FICO® Score has dropped since the offer was mailed to you.

Watch out for red flags

Avoid cards that have unusual terms like an upfront processing or activation fee or a fee to raise your credit limit. Likewise, don't accept an offer for a card with an abnormally high interest rate or with no grace period. Beware of an offer that guarantees approval—it could very well be a scam to collect money or personal information from you.

Comparing your offer to other cards you might qualify for is a good way to tell whether you have a solid offer. Once you've decided what to do with the offer, shred the application or any other documents with your name and personal info to avoid identity theft. Finally, if you prefer not to receive offers for new credit cards, you can stop most offers by going to optoutprescreen.com.

LaToya Irby

LaToya Irby is a financial writer with over 14 years of experience. She's been quoted and published as a credit expert in several major publications including USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, TheBalance.com, and The Chicago Tribune.

Estimate your FICO Score range

Answer 10 easy questions to get a free estimate of your FICO Score range

740 - 790
Estimate for Free

Instant Access to Your FICO® Score

90% of Top Lenders Use FICO® Scores. Do you know yours?

Get Access Now!

Page footer

Products

  • Home
  • Why FICO
  • How It Works
  • Pricing

Learn

  • Education
  • Community
  • Support
  • Blog

Company

  • About Us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Affiliate Program
  • Accessibility

Get Our App

  • Download iOS app on the App Store
  • fil_get
    Get Android app on the Google Play Store

Follow Us

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

Credit Education

  • Credit scores
  • What is a FICO Score?
  • FICO Score versions
  • How scores are calculated
  • Payment history
  • Amount of debt
  • Length of credit history
  • Credit mix
  • New credit
  • Credit reports
  • What's in your report
  • Bureaus
  • Inquiries
  • Errors on your report?
  • Calculators
  • Know your rights
  • Identity theft
  • FAQ
  • Glossary

Copyright ©2001- Fair Isaac Corporation. All rights reserved.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

All FICO® Score products made available on myFICO.com include a FICO® Score 8, and may include additional FICO® Score versions. Your lender or insurer may use a different FICO® Score than the versions you receive from myFICO, or another type of credit score altogether. Learn more

FICO, myFICO, Score Watch, The score lenders use, and The Score That Matters are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation. Equifax Credit Report is a trademark of Equifax, Inc. and its affiliated companies. Many factors affect your FICO Scores and the interest rates you may receive. Fair Isaac is not a credit repair organization as defined under federal or state law, including the Credit Repair Organizations Act. Fair Isaac does not provide "credit repair" services or advice or assistance regarding "rebuilding" or "improving" your credit record, credit history or credit rating. FTC's website on credit.

PRIVACY NOTICE: When you visit this website we collect your browsing activities on our site and use that information to analyze and research improvements to the website, and to our products and services. When you register for our products and services, we also collect certain personal information from you for identification purposes, such as your name, address, email address, telephone number, social security number, IP address, and date of birth. Further information is available in our FICO Data Privacy Policy. For visitors with visual disabilities, access to this website, including our FICO Data Privacy Policy, is available through assistive technologies, such as BrowseAloud, JAWS, VoiceOver, Narrator, ChromeVox, and Window-Eyes. More details on software and accessibility are available at WebAIM.org.