SBI Pre-Qualified vs Pre-Approved Cards?

[Fluffles]

I'm not a salaried employee and as a freelancer, my income is not consistent, but I have a perfect credit history that's over 4+ years old with not a single late, missed, or defaulted payment. I am only able to get cards that don't require income verification. I've gotten an HDFC Regalia card with just a banking relationship and credit history.

I do not have any credit products with SBI, so I have reason to be cautious when SBI calls me saying I have a pre-approved card offer and to apply. I log in to net banking to check and see that I have a "pre-qualified" card. This means there will be further income verification such as salary slips or bank statements, yes? Moreover, approval is not guaranteed, right? I do not have salary slips and a bank statement is not a good indication of my income. I can go from 1k to 5k per month or maybe nothing in some months to like 3 lakhs in another month. It's all based on milestones and never consistent incomes. The SBI sales guy on the phone keeps saying it's "pre-approved" and wants me to use his referral code. It's very possible he is lying to get me to apply, right? On the website, it clearly says "pre-qualified." Thus far all my "pre-qualified" loan and card applications have never resulted in approval from any banks.

Should I ignore these predatory sales people or is "pre-qualified" for SBI mean "pre-approved"? I don't want to risk an inquiry on my history if it's not really pre-approved as I want to take a loan next month. I am waiting for a HDFC pre-approved loan offer to refresh next month. If this is just the sales guy trying to fool me to earn his commissions or meet his sales quotas, I want to avoid applying for the "pre-qualified" SBI card.

 

[helloworld]

Simply remember, SBI doesn't have pre-approved concept. You have to follow whole process, thats the only way.

Agent sometimes says, "pre-approved" = "pre-qualified" = apply and do the whole process of kyc, verification, multiple calls where you have to tell each and every entry you made in that application.

 

[Fluffles]

Simply remember, SBI doesn't have pre-approved concept. You have to follow whole process, thats the only way.

Agent sometimes says, "pre-approved" = "pre-qualified" = apply ad do the whole process of kyc, verification, multiple calls where you have to tell each and every entry you made in that application.

Ah, so for someone like me who is not salaried and with inconsistent month-to-month income, It's very unlikely I will ever get the card approved. I am okay with doing KYC over and over, it's the wasted effort, inquiry on my record, and non-approval I'm worried about. With the hype going around SBI's Cashback card I want that card, but jumping on this might be a mistake if they don't have a concept of pre-approval.

This is good to know. My original plan before this marketing call and pre-qualified offer on netbanking, I was thinking about opening a FD and take loan on FD to build a credit history with SBI in hopes of pre-approvals, but if SBI doesn't have a concept of pre-approval then no point locking away 25k hoping to build credit history.

 

[helloworld]

SBI banking and SBI Cards are different, its just they refer your name, everything else you have to do by yourself.

 

[R@J]

I also see similar banner on my SBI netbanking.
Also, received a call from branch - they said it's pre-approved, you just come and need to sign the form...nothing needed.

However, my attempts to get another SBI card were declined in the past 7-12 months due to overleveraged.
Also, the SBIcard app doesn;t show option to apply for another card to me.

So much of confusion, so I dint apply..... had already wasted 3 cibil hits due to overleveraged.