Like most credit card issuers, Discover uses your credit score to determine approval for its cards. Your credit score number will determine whether you have excellent, good, fair or bad credit.
Credit Score Ranges Basics
Since Discover offers some generous rewards, you will need to have good to excellent credit to be approved. While Discover does not specify minimum scores for cards, it will be helpful if you have a score of 670 or more to qualify for the Discover It Cash Back, Miles, NHL or Business Cards.
The two Discover student cards are a little more flexible. You can qualify for one of these cards with a fair credit rating. However, you may still qualify if you lack a credit history.
If you have a poor credit rating or no credit history, your best option may be the Discover It Secured. This allows you to pay a deposit to secure your card. This offsets the need to have a higher score.
Of course, these are only approximate guidelines, since there are no official minimum requirements. Fortunately, Discover makes it easy to determine if you would qualify for a card with its pre-approval.
This is the easiest way to find out if there is a Discover card that matches your financial profile. The pre-approval tool only uses a soft credit check that will not impact your credit score. It will show you which cards you can be pre-approved for.
Bear in mind that pre-approval doesn’t guarantee approval on the application, but it does indicate a high probability that you could qualify for those cards.