Approval Odds: Your Key To A Successful Application | Bankrate (2024)

Key takeaways

  • Having a credit score that’s in line with a card issuer’s requirements doesn’t always guarantee you’ll qualify
  • Each time you apply for a credit card, your credit score can be affected
  • Bankrate’s Approval Odds feature can give you insights upfront about the cards you’re most likely to be approved for
  • Using Approval Odds is fast and easy — and it will not affect your credit score

Researching which credit card is right for you can be intimidating and time-consuming, especially if you’re unsure which cards you’ll qualify for. That’s where Bankrate’s Approval Odds feature can help.

What is Bankrate’s Approval Odds feature?

To get you started, each credit card featured on Bankrate carries a recommended credit range so that you can roughly estimate your approval odds before applying:

  • Excellent Credit: an 800 to 850 FICO Score, or a 781 to 850 VantageScore
  • Good Credit: a 670 to 799 FICO Score, or a 661 to 780 VantageScore
  • Fair Credit: a 580 to 669 FICO Score, or a 601 to 660 VantageScore
  • Poor Credit: a 300 to 579 FICO Score, or a 300 to 600 VantageScore
  • No Credit History: No credit history is required to apply

An on-par credit score doesn’t always guarantee you’ll qualify, though. Issuers may deny your application for other reasons, like multiple recent credit applications or a lower income than they’d prefer. In fact, the Bureau for Consumer Financial Protection’s latest Consumer Credit Card Market Report notes that credit card approval rates on general purpose cards have been declining since 2015, with a large 10 percent to 11 percent drop for those with prime or near-prime credit (a score of 620 to 719) as the economy tightened during 2020.

Considering that applying for a card can temporarily hurt your credit score — which can be a big setback if you’re on the edge of a favorable credit score or you don’t have much credit history — knowing your approval odds ahead of time helps you prioritize your picks.

Fortunately, Bankrate’s Approval Odds feature can give you a heads-up about how likely you are to qualify for a credit card on our site — with no impact on your credit score. That way, you can apply for the perfect card confidently. Think of it like a calculator of sorts; an approval odds calculator that helps steer you in the right direction before you formally apply for a credit card.

Our tool compares your credit report with historical approval data and issuer criteria to comprehensively calculate your odds of being approved. If your odds are excellent, you also might receive personalized card recommendations and prequalified offers through CardMatch.

How to use Bankrate’s Card Approval Odds

Getting started with the Approval Odds feature only takes one click. First head to a credit card category page or open an individual credit card review page. On participating credit cards, you’ll see a button labeled “see your approval odds” which will help you access your approval odds.

Once you’ve clicked “See your approval odds” on the card you’re interested in, you’ll be prompted to share your:

  1. First and last name
  2. Mailing address
  3. Employment status and annual income
  4. Monthly rent or mortgage payment
  5. Social Security number’s last four digits
  6. Email address

After that, clicking “Agree and see results” will finish setting up your account. Bankrate will immediately authorize a soft credit pull, which won’t affect your credit.

Congrats! The legwork is already done. If you’re on a card review page, you’ll see your approval odds for that card, ranging from “poor” to “excellent.” If you’re on a comparison page with multiple cards, you’ll see your approval odds for participating cards on that page.

From there, you can confidently proceed to the final step in the process: applying for a credit card. Of course, the credit card issuer has the final say in whether you’re approved, and you won’t know your status for certain until you’ve formally applied.

What do the Approval Odds ratings mean?

Each of the four Approval Odds color-coded ratings you’ll see in card tiles describe how likely you are to be approved for that card:

Ratings definitions

Excellent chance of approval
You are highly likely to qualify for this credit card. In fact, your high approval odds may also grant you access to “Special Offers” — meaning you may be preapproved for this card and possibly an elevated welcome offer if you apply through Bankrate.

Good chance of approval
You’re a strong candidate to be approved for this card. However, there’s a small chance that a few credit profile variables may slightly affect your likelihood of prequalifying for the card or nabbing its lowest APR.
Fair chance of approval
You may not have a perfect application, but there still may be a chance of approval. However, know that there is a risk of being declined or receiving a high APR. But if this card is the perfect fit, you might want to revisit it in the future after learning more about your credit score and which factors you can work on to increase your approval odds.
Poor chance of approval
You’ll want to avoid applying for this card. But although you probably won’t qualify right now, there are several ways to improve your credit score, even without a credit card.

The bottom line

Your credit score takes a small hit with every credit application, so it’s best to get it right on the first try. Although the credit card issuer always has the final say on whether you’re approved, knowing your Approval Odds can help you approach your next credit card application with an extra layer of confidence and potentially less risk to your credit score.

Approval Odds: Your Key To A Successful Application | Bankrate (2024)

FAQs

What do approval odds mean? ›

Approval Odds serve as guidelines regarding the likelihood you'll be approved for a specific credit card.

How can I increase my approval odds? ›

How to boost your personal loan approval odds
  1. Check the accuracy of your credit report. ...
  2. Improve your credit score. ...
  3. Prequalify before formally applying. ...
  4. Work on reducing your debt. ...
  5. Find ways to increase your income. ...
  6. Don't apply for too much money. ...
  7. Adding a cosigner or a co-borrower.
Aug 30, 2023

What credit score do I need to get approved for a credit card? ›

That likely means a score of at least 670 on the FICO scale and more than 660 on the VantageScore scale.

What is the application approval rate? ›

Application Approval Rate or “Approval Rate” means, for any calendar month, the number of credit applications (excluding duplicate applications or applications that have been previously submitted) submitted during such month that are approved by Household, divided by the total number of applications submitted during ...

Is 90% chance of approval good? ›

90% – 99% chance of approval

This means that you're very likely to be approved for a loan or credit card based on what you've told us. Usually, the lender will need to do a few final checks on their side to fully approve your application.

What does give good odds mean? ›

to offer a bet with favourable odds.

What is the 5 24 rule for Chase? ›

Many card issuers have criteria for who can qualify for new accounts, but Chase is perhaps the most strict. Chase's 5/24 rule means that you can't be approved for most Chase cards if you've opened five or more personal credit cards (from any card issuer) within the past 24 months.

Who is most likely to get approved for a personal loan? ›

If you have a fair credit score, which includes FICO scores from 580 to 669, you may be able to qualify for an unsecured personal loan from a traditional lender.4 However, individuals with scores at the lower end of that range will find fewer available options overall, and they may not like what they see when they ...

How can I increase my approval rate? ›

There are a number of things you can do to increase your authorization rate, including: Collect and submit additional billing information: Make sure you're including as much information as possible in the charge requests, which gives the banks more details to verify legitimate transactions.

Which card is easiest to get approved for? ›

Easiest credit cards to get approved for
  • Best for unsecured card: Capital One Platinum Credit Card.
  • Best for students: Discover it® Student Cash Back.
  • Best for no annual fee: Citi Double Cash® Card.
  • Best student dining card: Capital One SavorOne Student Cash Rewards Credit Card.

What is a good credit score for 2024? ›

For a score with a range between 300 and 850, a credit score of 700 or above is generally considered good. A score of 800 or above on the same range is considered to be excellent. Most consumers have credit scores that fall between 600 and 750.

What is the easiest credit card to get with a 580 credit score? ›

The best credit card for a 580 credit score is the OpenSky® Plus Secured Visa® Credit Card because it does not check your credit score when you apply and has a $0 annual fee. The OpenSky® Plus Secured Visa® Credit Card also reports to the credit bureaus, which can help you build credit.

What is a good apply rate? ›

Apply Rate refers to the number of job seekers who visit a job posting and actually apply for the job. The average Apply Rate across employers today is just 5%. That means that 95% of the job seekers who visit a job either decide not to apply or are unable.

What is the formula for application approval rate? ›

Determine the total number of applicants. Determine the number of applicants accepted. Apply the acceptance rate formula: acceptance rate = number of applicants accepted / total number of applicants × 100 .

What is the average applicant acceptance rate? ›

According to the latest data by Research.com, the average acceptance rate for American universities and colleges is around 67% or higher. An acceptance rate of 50% or higher is considered a high admission rate, while a 10% or lower is considered low, typically seen among Ivy League acceptance rates.

Can you get a loan with fair approval odds? ›

It's possible to get personal loans for fair credit — typically a FICO score is between 580 and 669. However, you'll have to jump through more hoops than those with good or excellent credit. You may also have to shop around to find lenders that offer competitive personal loan rates for fair credit.

What does 130 odds mean? ›

This means you need to risk $100 to profit a certain amount. For example, if the odds for a bet are +130, a bettor would have to risk $100 to profit $130. These odds can be scaled up and down.

What does it mean when asked what are the odds? ›

The odds are the chances that something will happen. If you flip a coin, the odds are 50-50 you'll get heads. When we talk about odds, we're talking about probabilities, specifically, how likely it is that something will happen.

What does 5000 odds mean? ›

If you were to bet $10 on +5000 odds you would receive $500.00 in profit if this outcome won. Odds accompanied with a positive sign (+) indicate that this is the underdog and this outcome will have a lower chance of winning compared to a favorite, however underdogs will yield a higher profit if they win.

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