You're absolutely, positively pre-approved; maybe: how credit companies twist the truth - and why regulators let them.

• Author: Hodges, Glenn

Finally I was getting the truth: "Pre-approved doesn't always mean pre-approved." In one sentence, and without a hint of irony, a single customer service representative was correcting the ad copy of countless "pre-approved" credit card offers.

I was talking to FCC National Bank, the fourth largest bank card issuer in the country, the single largest issuer of gold cards, and, as a subsidiary of First Chicago NBD Corp., a "banking industry pioneer," according to The American Banker. Growing at a rate of 40 percent a year, FCC is certainly a pioneer, but of what--and at whose expense? For in their frenzy to get ever-bigger slices of a tight credit card market, banks like FCC are taking bold liberties with the truth in their ad copy. In better days, we might have called it lying.

"Banks are promising customers the moon to get them to sign up," says Robert McKinley, president of CardTrak, a credit card research firm. "It's a very competitive market."

Call it explosive. Banks mailed 2.7 billion credit card solicitations in 1995, triple the number they mailed only three years earlier. Two thirds were "pre-approved," and half were for gold cards, which have credit limits of at least $5,000 and, often, perks like extended warranty protection and rental car insurance. Because gold card customers have more money to spend and are generally better credit risks, banks want as many of them as possible. But they don't want the wrong people--people with too much debt or not enough income. The solution? Offer gold cards to everyone who meets certain pre-screened qualifications, then weed out the undesirables. Says McKinley, "I've seen [solicitations] from consumers who've had bankruptcies and everything else--terrible credit--yet they have been `pre-approved' for a gold card. It's obvious that it's not a serious offer."

By law (with a few exceptions) banks are required to offer credit to anyone whose credit report they prescreen; so they give the people who don't make the final cut no-fulls cards with lower credit limits. It's a common practice, but most banks are semi-honest about it; they tell you up front that your "pre-approval" is conditional--you need this much income, or your credit report needs to pass a more thorough screening. But a few banks--and we're not talking fly-by-night outfits--are trying to shortcut the process by hiding or omitting the unpleasant details, and deceiving as many people as possible into responding. This way, they not only get all the gold card customers they can, they also get a host of regular card customers with the false lure of the gold card. And they profit on all of them.

Meanwhile, unsuspecting consumers are not getting what they're promised, and they're getting something they never wanted in the first place. (At one point, some banks tried having a box on their gold card solicitations for customers who wanted regular cards if they were turned down for gold cards; so few checked practice was quickly discontinued. Since many inquiries and accounts can imperil future credit applications, people may have problems if they keep going for these gold cards they're promised and wind up with pockets full of $500 Visas. "People don't realize, the damage it may be doing to their credit reports," says Sandy...