Credit Cards

[maiden_girl]

Odd situation but not uncommon. I hate when creditors do this sort of thing. If they need additional documents, they should not open the account until all documents have been satisfied. I had this issue with CAP1 when I first began building credit in 2010. I applied online, got approved, received the card, called the number to activate it only to have them tell me I could not activate the card b/c I had to verify my identity. Sounds simple enough until your get to the conditions...Must do so by going to a Cap1 branch, show my driver's license and have them contact customer service to verify I was me. Then there was a issue with my physical address being different on my credit report than on my license (and there aren't any CAP1 branches in my area) took a month to get the account open b/c I had to go to my personal bank and do this--imagine their surprise. CAP1 would not let me close the account, they would not "close by grant creditor" nor would they let me activate it.

[Revelate]

Nav: lots of banks ask for tax returns. If you are self-employed is the biggest example and is the common benchmark for income verification in that case. That said, mist people are W2 employees anyway and you're right pay stubs are generally sufficient for almost everyone except Amex.

Illecs: you are probably right but I don't see any upside in letting it report as such (closed by credit grantor) if I have a choice. It is a reasonable thing for a lender to ask about during an underwriting phase if they so desire... Or are just looking for story time.

[llecs]

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Revelate wrote:
Illecs: you are probably right but I don't see any upside in letting it report as such (closed by credit grantor) if I have a choice. It is a reasonable thing for a lender to ask about during an underwriting phase if they so desire... Or are just looking for story time.

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I can't only relay my own experiences I suppose. I can't recall any posts where a comment of "closed by credit grantor" became an issue. Maybe there's someone out there, I dunno.

In my case, I've had my reports reviewed with CC CSR types line by line and it was never brought up. My mortgage lender didn't say anything either despite having 3 with that comment at the time. One was an old CapOne that I defaulted on but never CO'd. The lates were off long before apping for a mortgage, but it still said "closed by credit grantor". I had two lost CCs, nether of which indicated it was lost, but had the closed comment.

[Revelate]

Oh yeah that's a great point they are definitely not uniform on their use of that status. I'm probably reading to much into it on my own experience where even trivial details seemed to be on the table at times... But really there is a lot more important things and this is definitely minor. It could be AA but it may not, and I suspect it's probably not worth worrying about, though I will probably avoid it where I can still.

[ficosphere]

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JohnB222 wrote:

If you fail this FR, you have a HIGH chance of being blacklisted never being able to obtain an American Express card for quite some time (or possibly even your entire life).  My two cents.  Good luck

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This surprises me. Where have you heard of this happening? I know American Express will blacklist you if you run up a bunch of charges and then default, but I've never heard of American Express blacklisting someone for failing a FR (although those who fail an FR usually have to go through another FR next time they apply).

[n777ua]

I don't think you'll get blacklisted, but I do think you'll get FR's for every new card after this until you complete it.  My 2 cents: close the account and wait for Amex until your older with some sort of steady income.  If you proceed and they close the account, you MAY be hurting your chances for further accounts.

Also, years ago when I used a CapOne auto loan, I included scholarship money for income on the app.  They rejected that amount completely as it wasn't "earned income". YMMV

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ficosphere wrote:

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JohnB222 wrote:

If you fail this FR, you have a HIGH chance of being blacklisted never being able to obtain an American Express card for quite some time (or possibly even your entire life).  My two cents.  Good luck

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This surprises me. Where have you heard of this happening? I know American Express will blacklist you if you run up a bunch of charges and then default, but I've never heard of American Express blacklisting someone for failing a FR (although those who fail an FR usually have to go through another FR next time they apply).

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[navigatethis12]

Have you spoken with them yet? If not, I really think you should. There are many things it could be and they are the only ones who know exactly what they want. You can just ask if scholarships count as income and it will be yes or no. If no, then you know you can go ahead and close it on your own. If your parents do not mind, you can ask them if they may co-sign for you.

[Elcid89]

I'd have to agree. Even if a scholarship provided discretionary income (most just pay expenses), it's still income of a tertiary nature and they'll balk at it.

Trying to claim expenses paid on your behalf (like tuition, etc) as income is, not to put too fine a point on it, fraud.

Close the account before they close it for you. It'll serve you better in the long run to take that option, IMO.

[rootpooty]

while per fico scoring it will have no negative affect, you still might have that time where a manual review or a recon takes place and the analyst asks "i see you didnt have your amex a month and they shut you down?"  im sure an analyst can spot this and that would be the only downfall to this tradeline being reported as closed by grantor

[CruzImperial]

I'm in a similar situation here except they haven't put me in the death row yet.
I declared this year's income when I applied back in august. The only tax return I have is last year's and I was making way less than what I do now.
If they hit me, I'm dead as well.

I would try activating the card, call them and see what they want.