topic Re: Income for Credit Card Apps in Credit Cards

Income for Credit Card Apps

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 19:38:14 GMT

Curious what people do. Do you only use your income, or do you add your spouse? Have you changed your income to include your spouse to have a better chance of approval with an existing lender? Did they ask for documents after the jump in income reported?

Personally, since me and my wife keep our finances separate, I only use my income unless an app specifically asks for household income.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 19:40:12 GMT

used to put combined household income when i was married.

we had both combined and separate checking and savings accounts.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Jnbmom — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 19:52:23 GMT

I normally use household unless it asks for individual.

i would guess if your household is significantly higher but when you applied you used your individual then if you updated to household , it might raise a few eyebrows?

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:00:43 GMT

@Jnbmom wrote:
I normally use household unless it asks for individual.

i would guess if your household is significantly higher but when you applied you used your individual then if you updated to household , it might raise a few eyebrows?

What with discover asking for tax docs, I would think that people would be less likely to use household income. I would assume that if I added 50k to my income, amex might raise an eyebrow.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:02:36 GMT

I mean, how would that work? If you all of a sudden added your spouse's income and a lender requested tax docs. Me and my wife file separately. I can provide mine, what if she doesn't want to provide hers? Do they shut down all of my accounts?

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Jnbmom — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:03:34 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@Jnbmom wrote:
I normally use household unless it asks for individual.

i would guess if your household is significantly higher but when you applied you used your individual then if you updated to household , it might raise a few eyebrows?
What with discover asking for tax docs, I would think that people would be less likely to use household income. I would assume that if I added 50k to my income, amex might raise an eyebrow.

Well you can provide POI with your joint tax returns do I don't see why people would shy away from using it .

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

FieryDance — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:09:14 GMT

We file taxes jointly so I always put our combined income. I use a conservative number (lower than actual) and I have never updated when incomes increase. But if at some point in the future our income decreases I will update.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:21:41 GMT

@FieryDance wrote:
We file taxes jointly so I always put our combined income. I use a conservative number (lower than actual) and I have never updated when incomes increase. But if at some point in the future our income decreases I will update.

Oooh, that brings up another good question. Has anybody's income gone down, and they got a FR or AA for not updating it?

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

CaptJOB — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:22:20 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@Jnbmom wrote:
I normally use household unless it asks for individual.

i would guess if your household is significantly higher but when you applied you used your individual then if you updated to household , it might raise a few eyebrows?
What with discover asking for tax docs, I would think that people would be less likely to use household income. I would assume that if I added 50k to my income, amex might raise an eyebrow.

I added DWs income out of the blue and they didn't care. Probably only an issue if you're trying to leverage it for a much larger credit limit without showing an equal increase in spending in a short period of time.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

wasCB14 — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:31:02 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
Curious what people do. Do you only use your income, or do you add your spouse? Have you changed your income to include your spouse to have a better chance of approval with an existing lender? Did they ask for documents after the jump in income reported?

Personally, since me and my wife keep our finances separate, I only use my income unless an app specifically asks for household income.

Single, never married. I report earned income and recurring dividend/interest income from investments over which I have direct control.

No capital gains. They vary too much from year to year. Easier to live with moderate but adequate CLs than endure a rollercoaster of income updates and CL changes. I did once include this income and it immediately attracted a POI request from Amex, but I was also trying to take a $10k CL up to $30k. However, I had not yet filed the relevant return so I ignored the transcript request and let the CLI request die off.

No income from inherited investments until everything is finally settled and I have direct control.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

K-in-Boston — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:33:45 GMT

I use HHI (except when individual is specified). In my case, I think it would raise eyebrows with the level of spend going through the cards if I were only to use individual income. I don't change anything with splitting the mortgage amount, though, and use the full amount of the payment including insurance and taxes that are escrowed.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Remedios — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:35:31 GMT

@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:
@FieryDance wrote:
We file taxes jointly so I always put our combined income. I use a conservative number (lower than actual) and I have never updated when incomes increase. But if at some point in the future our income decreases I will update.
Oooh, that brings up another good question. Has anybody's income gone down, and they got a FR or AA for not updating it?

When my family situation changed, I decreased income to about 1/3 if what it was because I wasn't sure when I'd be cleared to work part time, then full time.

No one blinked an eye.

I've never bothered changing it back, I firmly believe what's there supports limits on them

Newer apps also have slightly under reported income.

So, to answer your question, it was a rather significant change with no AA.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Brian_Earl_Spilner — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:37:04 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
I use HHI (except when individual is specified). In my case, I think it would raise eyebrows with the level of spend going through the cards if I were only to use individual income. I don't change anything with splitting the mortgage amount, though, and use the full amount of the payment including insurance and taxes that are escrowed.

So, would it make more sense for me to use household income because I run about 50% of my income through amex alone?

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

K-in-Boston — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:53:59 GMT

Possibly. If you file joint returns, that would cover any questions that may arise.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:54:01 GMT

I only use my income and update in their system when mine changes for the better. Since I do not have my wife as an AU or anything and we keep our finances separate, I do not report hers.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

omgitsMatt — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 20:54:45 GMT

I choose by what lender I'm applying with says is allowed. If they allow shared income, I claim it.

If they don't specifially say in the fine print that they allow it, I hedge my bets and claim my own income, rather than risk some type of AA.

I cherry pick my lenders too that allow me to claim shared income.

I have only claimed my income only with Discover, in case they ask for the 4506-T verification.

We may share checking/savings accounts and have our direct deposit pay roll pays deposited in a shared account, but we know now Discover goes off of tax returns. And we file seperately.

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

omgitsMatt — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:01:56 GMT

I had a CU ask for proof of income from pay stubs once, even though they said I could claim shared income.

So I provided my last two pay stubs _and_ her last two, then also provided a bank statement showing them both being deposited into the same account.

It was more than they asked for, but I wanted to show tangible proof it was shared income.

It helps too coming here in the forums and finding out what POI is acceptable to certain lenders. I never really have to guess on what I should or shouldn't claim

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

simplynoir — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:07:51 GMT

Household income here unless they specifically ask for individual like some credit unions do at times. If it ever comes to tax returns I guess it would be an issue because we're not married yet but either of our individual incomes alone would be enough for the banks to not have any issues

As to what income to report we only give them the base salary we earn without investment, bonuses, trust funds, etc. in that. If it comes to it on a bank asking where the money is coming from with regards to spend we can provide documentation then but it's not something we'll provide on the onset

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:08:12 GMT

I'm not sure how much difference it makes if you have a decent income and good history. I certainly have a higher credit line than I could ever actually repay comfortably

Re: Income for Credit Card Apps

K-in-Boston — Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:09:23 GMT

@omgitsMatt wrote:
I had a CU ask for proof of income from pay stubs once, even though they said I could claim shared income.

So I provided my last two pay stubs _and_ her last two, then also provided a bank statement showing them both being deposited into the same account.

It was more than they asked for, but I wanted to show tangible proof it was shared income.

It helps too coming here in the forums and finding out what POI is acceptable to certain lenders. I never really have to guess on what I should or shouldn't claim

I had this same experience with PenFed when getting an auto refi. To this day I still think it was weird that they didn't ask for POI on an unsecured credit card, but did ask for a secured auto loan where the vehicle was worth like $12,000 more than the remaining loan amount.