CardMatch Tool: What You Need to Know

Banks and card issuers often email you targeted offers that include boosted welcome bonuses, low intro APR and waived annual fees. However, these offers are often lost in the depths of your inbox, never to be utilized.

Welcome offers in particular are some of the most lucrative aspects of travel rewards credit cards. In fact, some cards can be worth applying for based purely on their welcome offer (depending on your wider card strategy). Being able to take advantage of higher than publicly available welcome offers is a key way to get even more bang for your buck.

In your search for the best offers, the CardMatch Tool can help make your life a whole lot easier. CardMatch matches you with the cards that are suitable to your credit profile and preferences, as well as cards with offers targeted specifically to you.

Let’s take a look at how CardMatch works and how and why you should use it.

What Is CardMatch?

CardMatch uses your personal information to determine the credit cards that are most suited for you and find targeted offers.

After you give CardMatch some information about yourself, it performs a soft pull on your credit report. Don’t worry, though—while a soft pull will show up on your credit report, it won’t affect your credit score.

Using its algorithm, the tool then matches you with cards you’d be likely to be approved for (but nothing is guaranteed until you submit an application). On top of this, CardMatch also gives you access to “targeted” or “pre-qualified” offers available from some issuers.

Typically, card issuers may send you targeted offers via email every now and then or advertise them through their website. However, it’s often impractical to regularly scan through these emails or the card issuer’s website in search of these offers. That’s where CardMatch does the work for you. It searches for the best offers targeted specifically to you.

Individuals with higher credit scores and longer credit histories can expect to find credit card welcome offers that are far higher than those typically available to the public. That said, if you have multiple cards with a certain bank or card issuer, it’s likely that you may not receive as many targeted offers from that specific issuer—instead, other banks and issuers will likely target you.

CardMatch works directly with more than 25 banks and card issuers, such as Chase, American Express and Capital One.

It’s important to note that not every user of CardMatch will be eligible to receive offers from every issuer. Also, not all of the card issuers that participate in card matching provide elevated offers and pre-qualification.

Why You Should Use CardMatch

CardMatch serves multiple purposes that can help you when browsing the market for a new credit card.

First, CardMatch shows you which credit cards you’re likely to be approved for. It’s important to make the point here that CardMatch doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be approved. Rather, using your information, it determines which cards you have a relatively high probability of being approved for.

But make no mistake—a pre-qualified offer isn’t the same as a pre-approval. Nevertheless, this can still help guide your search for a new card based on your actual credit score, preferences and pre-qualified offers.

Second, CardMatch can help you find offers that are far higher than those available to the general public. As these offers are targeted specifically to you, the higher your credit score and the longer your credit history is, the better the chances are of you receiving lucrative targeted offers.

For instance, the welcome offer for the American Express® Gold Card has gone as high as 90,000 Membership Rewards points on CardMatch while that of The Platinum Card® from American Express has hit 175,000 points (assuming you meet their respective minimum spending requirements). The publicly available welcome offer for the Amex Gold usually doesn’t go higher than 60,000 points while that of the Amex Platinum Card usually peaks at 100,000 points.

Given Amex’s one welcome offer per card per lifetime rule, using CardMatch is an excellent way to reap even more value out of the cards’ welcome offers.

How to Use CardMatch

To get started with CardMatch, begin by visiting the CardMatch portal.

You’ll be prompted to enter your personal information, including your:

• First and last names
• Home address
• The last four digits of your Social Security number
• Your email address

You’ll also need to consent to having your information processed by CardMatch.

CardMatch will then perform a soft pull on your credit report to find out for which cards—and card offers—you could be eligible.

You’ll then be presented with CardMatch’s search results. These will include a range of offers targeted specifically to your profile. These offers can include higher than publicly advertised welcome offers as well as bonus introductory APR periods in some cases.

Once you find a card with an offer that floats your boat, you can apply directly for the card through the “Apply Now” button. Keep in mind that you need to apply through the CardMatch portal directly to secure the offer. Otherwise, you’ll receive the publicly available (non-targeted) offer on the card.

That said, just because CardMatch gives you a pre-qualified offer, it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be approved for the card. You still need to fill out a card application, whereby the card issuer will perform a hard credit pull on your score to determine your eligibility for the card.

Is CardMatch Safe?

CardMatch is completely safe to use and is an excellent way to find targeted offers. It’s PCI Level-1 compliant and uses 256-bit encryption to transmit and secure your personal information.

Final Verdict

If you’re in the market for a new credit card, checking for targeted offers through CardMatch is always a good idea. You have nothing to lose and may just end up with a welcome bonus twice as high as that on offer to the general public.

So the next time you’re applying for a card, don’t forget to check out your options on CardMatch.