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You are in an unusual situation. You have demonstrated excellent handling of credit so far. You have accumulated assets in part from student loan residuals, and you have excellent employment prospects with a reasonable income range.
You are, IMO, a nearly perfect, low risk, credit customer.
However, in spite of legislative encouragement to consider assets and not just income in granting credit there has been no significant effort for lenders to pursue considering assets. My future income could well be zero in any given year. It's entirely possible that I could decide to take a capital loss and not capital gains that would result in a negative net gross income. My assets are, aside from bank accounts which earn little these days, invested with a view towards capital appreciation and not dividends. As a result what I chose to liquidate can determine whether I have a large income or no income in a specific year. If asked, I put down a rolling 3 year average of my IRS 1040s under "other" income. But is that really income according to Reg Z? Hell if I know. Worse, what If I chose to not take any capital appreciation for three years? How would I app for a CC then? I can live off the cash in my accounts for the next 20 years but is that income? No, it's not.
Oddly, the portion of your student loan proceeds that you saved now qualifies as "income" under the new Reg Z guidelines. That really seems fishy to me but it's actually the law. OTOH, you have completed your work to become a dentist which has a predictably large employment base and fairly well established income. Since it's income you can reasonably expect to have access to it doesn't offend my sensibilities to include it under "other income" the way Reg Z now expansively reads. I would not state that you employed since you are not and they may ask questions about your future expectations and how solid they are.
Another possibility is to request a product change. Banks generally just look at your history and if it's clean say ok. In my experience they just ask what card you would like to change to and nothing else. Chase already knows you are/were a student.
The problem I have with this thread is that there is only a casual nod to what the OP actually earns, and a suggestion that because others such as aspiring actors list questionable figures, the OP should list whatever he wants. The question shouldn't be what income can be listed without raising red flags. An appropriate inquiry would be how to properly account for assets/student loan income on a credit application. If after accounting for that information properly, the number is below $12K or whatever the believed minimum threshhold is, so be it. I don't think it is being ultra conservative or silly to tell people to claim their real income/assets on an application.
Anyway, I wish OP the best of luck.
It's worth mentioning from time to time that knowingly, materially lying on a financial app is a federal crime.
@cashnocredit wrote:It's worth mentioning from time to time that knowingly, materially lying on a financial app is a federal crime.
A federal crime that banks got bailed out on for doing it with mortgages.
i havn't had my coffee yet... im deleting myself from this thread, it's gone silly.
Probably my last post here but I made these loans and CC decisions all the time as a Bank VP.
Question to potential client: You just graduated from law/medical school, got anything lined up?
Answer: Yeah have three offers all of them over 60K.
Question: When will you start?
Answer: About 90 days from today.
Question: Will 5K do for now?
For doctors we'd even loan them money to buy a house on a 90 day note until they could get permanent mortgage financing.
Never lost a nickel, made a ton of fee income.
@coterotie wrote:Probably my last post here but I made these loans and CC decisions all the time as a Bank VP.
Question to potential client: You just graduated from law/medical school, got anything lined up?
Answer: Yeah have three offers all of them over 60K.
Question: When will you start?
Answer: About 90 days from today.
Question: Will 5K do for now?
For doctors we'd even loan them money to buy a house on a 90 day note until they could get permanent mortgage financing.
Never lost a nickel, made a ton of fee income.
Yep, he's an excellent potential customer but there is a trend in banking away from personal judgement which is always subjective, and an entirely metric and checkbox driven decisioning. Smaller, local banks have more flexibility if they are big enough to underwrite their own cards/loans.
You need to have an income, but it does not have to be from a job. In certain situations a lender can use a percentage of your liquid assets as a source of income.