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Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

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gx240
New Member

Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

Does anyone know if credit card companies actually verify employment information (aside from income). If so, how do they do it? I notice some credit card application forms ask for the phone number of your place of employment. Do they actually call? Has anyone ever heard one of these calls and know what questions they ask?

 

I should say that the company I work for does not have any kind of automated system for verifying employment, so if they wanted to verify anything they would have to call and speak to my boss directly.

Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
webhopper
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

They may ask for check stubs or tax documents if your file is borderline... ive never had this happen to me.
FICO 9:
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.

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Message 2 of 9
gx240
New Member

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

Yep, I know they can ask for documents to verify income, I was just wondering why they want the phone number of your employer though.

Message 3 of 9
CribDuchess
Established Contributor

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

As someone who works in Human Resources, I can say that on a rare occasion we do receive employment verification requests from credit card companies.  Our policy is that we won't verify much over the phone, mainly just confirming that the employee works for us and his/her position.  Anything beyond that requires a written request with the employee's permission (signature) authorizing the release of information. 

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Message 4 of 9
Creditaddict
Legendary Contributor

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

American Express - but only if you get FR

Household use to do an auto phone call to the main/cell number you gave them WHILE it said it was processing app... when you answered it just said verifying line and a few seconds later would spit back approval but I mean at $100,$300,$500 limits who cares! LOL

Navy usually wants stubs at least once then they don't seem to ask much.

Discover is really the only one I have seen go to great lengths but not for just employment. Many years ago with a family business a pre-approval was sent to biz address so that is what was used for app... they called and asked about the house that was owned and why biz address was used.  then during a phone call the agent asked where this family member was and she then put call on hold saying needing to speak with supervisor or review credit more but the rep actually called the number related to the place where they said they were not.... thats really the only time I have seen such sneaky lengths to try to verify but I suppose it's not bad once and if you passed it all!

but most companies probably could never make money if they employed enough people to do that kind of leg work on the probably thousands or hundreds of thousands of apps each day!

Message 5 of 9
AF_23
Frequent Contributor

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

You can give em your home phone if you prefer they dont have your employers number. I have never had an issue doing this. Large signature cards may be a different animal though

Message 6 of 9
SpiceIslander
Frequent Contributor

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification


@gx240 wrote:

Does anyone know if credit card companies actually verify employment information (aside from income). If so, how do they do it? I notice some credit card application forms ask for the phone number of your place of employment. Do they actually call? Has anyone ever heard one of these calls and know what questions they ask?

 


I have never received calls from credit card companies even though employees have old me someone might call. The only verifications I've had were for mortgages. Strange enough, I've had calls from credit card companies about employees that had left the company 6 - 8 years peviously and apparently have become delinquent.

Meg.

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Message 7 of 9
MsLadyRover
Valued Contributor

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification

When I opened my NFCU account and applied for the Cash Rewards card, they contacted my employer and actually had HR fill out some form that had to be faxed back to them.  I'm not sure if the form verified employment, salary, or both, but as soon as she received it back (I was on the phone with them at the time) they approved me for the card.



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Message 8 of 9
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Credit Card Application - Employment Verification


@MsLadyRover wrote:

When I opened my NFCU account and applied for the Cash Rewards card, they contacted my employer and actually had HR fill out some form that had to be faxed back to them.  I'm not sure if the form verified employment, salary, or both, but as soon as she received it back (I was on the phone with them at the time) they approved me for the card.


Presumably employment, CribDutchess may know for certain but I think there's legal ramifications in requesting income verification or other details from the employer directly.  It's much like a reference, there's very little that can be legally stated, and anything above that is grounds for a lawsuit technically.

 

Anyway to the OP: I wouldn't sweat it.  Amex asked for my employer's number so I just gave them the one off my paystub... which was sort of surprising it was there in the first place but I digress. It may just be a sanity check, but with an instant approval they certainly didn't actually call.  I don't think I could possibly spend enough with my existence to trigger a FR, though I suppose stranger things have happened.

 

It's pretty routine with CU's to have to produce paystubs seemingly, but I think everything about CU's is more documentation-oriented since they're only as strong as their member's assets.

 




        
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