Citi Costco - 4506-T

[Anonymous]

I was feeling good after a few recent approvals and decided to app for the Citi Costco card. We spend at least $500/month at Costco alone and I don't have a good rewards card yet as I'm slowly but surely rebuilding (it's been a LONG process for me). Received the 7-10 days message and assumed it would be denied. 

To my surprise and confusion, I received a letter in the mail requesting a 4506-T to allow them access to my '17 tax return. I'm hesitant to do this for the standard reason about too much disclosure but also because my '17 tax return doesn't paint an accurate financial picture. In the lasst 15 months, my income has increased by 35%. My household income also includes my SO's income and  child support I receive through a governmental payment which means it's guaranteed. All of this means that my last tax return reflects about 50% of this year's current total household income. I don't want to raise any red flags as I didn't do anything illegal but I was really hoping to get this card. 

Has anyone tried making an appeal to Citi without doing the 4506-T? Is there any way I can get around this? 

[CreditCuriosity]

provide your 4506-t and take a chance depending on how big of difference it is is whether citi will approval you and if you can prove the difference by supporting documents if citi will accept it.. Won't be able to get away from the 4506-t request other than deciding to withdrawl the application and not comply.  All depends on how badly you want the card the worse that can happen is they say nope based on your tax return and the best is obviously an approval if you don't do anything at all they certainly wont approve it.. Just comes down to how badly you want the card.

[pipeguy]

I agree with @CreditCuriosity in as it depends how much you want the card.

If you want the card you'll have to supply the permission to look at your taxes - you can always document any difference in income through pay stubs. On the other hand, if you value your privacy more than another card you can tell them never mind - expect any future applications to Citi to require the 4506-T for consideration.

Personally, I have never been asked or supplied IRS information for a basic loan or credit card. I did have to provide pay stubs, W2's and a 4506-T to NFCU for my recent refi-mortgage, but that was for $300k+. Again, personally, I'd tell Citi (or any other card lender) to forget it - there are a lot more card options out there that are not evasive for a credit card "they" can cancel anytime they want.  

[Spotsy]

+1 ...what @pipeguy and @creditcuriosity said.

if you really want it...give them the info.  

IMHO, a CC Issuer will never get that from me...TMI...plenty of other options out there if you want a CC. Not sure the Costco CC is worth that invasion.

[arkane]

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@pipeguy wrote:

@I agree with @CreditCuriosity in as it depends how much you want the card.

If you want the card you'll have to supply the permission to look at your taxes - you can always document any difference in income through pay stubs. On the other hand, if you value your privacy more than another card you can tell them never mind - expect any future applications to Citi to require the 4506-T for consideration.

Personally, I have never been asked or supplied IRS information for a basic loan or credit card. I did have to provide pay stubs, W2's and a 4506-T to NFCU for my recent refi-mortgage, but that was for $300k+. Again, personally, I'd tell Citi (or any other card lender) to forget it - there are a lot more card options out there that are not evasive for a credit card "they" can cancel anytime they want.  

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+1

I'd tell any lender who wants a 4506-T for a credit card to sock it as well (ok fine if they swore in blood to give me a 100K+ line I might do it). Plus there's nothing the Citi Costco card can do that other cards can't do even better. I say fuggedaboutit.

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was feeling good after a few recent approvals and decided to app for the Citi Costco card. We spend at least $500/month at Costco alone and I don't have a good rewards card yet as I'm slowly but surely rebuilding (it's been a LONG process for me). Received the 7-10 days message and assumed it would be denied. 

To my surprise and confusion, I received a letter in the mail requesting a 4506-T to allow them access to my '17 tax return. I'm hesitant to do this for the standard reason about too much disclosure but also because my '17 tax return doesn't paint an accurate financial picture. In the lasst 15 months, my income has increased by 35%. My household income also includes my SO's income and  child support I receive through a governmental payment which means it's guaranteed. All of this means that my last tax return reflects about 50% of this year's current total household income. I don't want to raise any red flags as I didn't do anything illegal but I was really hoping to get this card. 

Has anyone tried making an appeal to Citi without doing the 4506-T? Is there any way I can get around this? 

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I'll restate once again what I've stated often....I never have, and never will give a creditor access to my tax returns for a credit card. They could close them all if a 4506-T is required to keep them. They already have more of my personal info than I'm comfortable with, and all the news reports about even equifax failing to keep data secure only strengthens this resolve. For a home mortgage, I can see it, but for a lousy credit card...naa, nope, aint happening!!!!

[Anonymous]

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@sarge12 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I was feeling good after a few recent approvals and decided to app for the Citi Costco card. We spend at least $500/month at Costco alone and I don't have a good rewards card yet as I'm slowly but surely rebuilding (it's been a LONG process for me). Received the 7-10 days message and assumed it would be denied. 

To my surprise and confusion, I received a letter in the mail requesting a 4506-T to allow them access to my '17 tax return. I'm hesitant to do this for the standard reason about too much disclosure but also because my '17 tax return doesn't paint an accurate financial picture. In the lasst 15 months, my income has increased by 35%. My household income also includes my SO's income and  child support I receive through a governmental payment which means it's guaranteed. All of this means that my last tax return reflects about 50% of this year's current total household income. I don't want to raise any red flags as I didn't do anything illegal but I was really hoping to get this card. 

Has anyone tried making an appeal to Citi without doing the 4506-T? Is there any way I can get around this? 

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I'll restate once again what I've stated often....I never have, and never will give a creditor access to my tax returns for a credit card. They could close them all if a 4506-T is required to keep them. They already have more of my personal info than I'm comfortable with, and all the news reports about even equifax failing to keep data secure only strengthens this resolve. For a home mortgage, I can see it, but for a lousy credit card...naa, nope, aint happening!!!!

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Amen to this! I personally feel that no credit card is worth opening up about my finances.  All they need to do is look at my credit report / score and give me a thumbs up or down.

Plus - Knowing Citi's typical behavior, they'll review your 4506-T and still stick you with a craptacular SL....

[Anonymous]

Thank you everyone for your feedback! You've confirmed exactly how I felt about this. Into the shred bin goes the letter and form! 

[Anonymous]

I'm going to play devil's advocate and say go ahead and submit it. You were interested enough in the card to apply and like me you shop Costco on the regs and stand to benefit from the Costco Visa. If you end up getting a lower limit then you hoped for and feel like the info from your 2017 return not accurately reflecting your financial picture was at fault, you can always go for a CLI later.

The reason I say submit is this (agree or not it's essentially true): granting the authorization won't give a lender any information about you that you haven't already provided - unless you fudged some numbers. Think about it, with the exception of knowing exactly where and exactly how much income you have reported instead of maybe a job title or employer's name and a ballpark figure income, what else didn't you already put on your initial application? Name, address, dob, SSN, income, mortgage or rent, total household income perhaps. We're talking granular details about information you already submitted. I agree that it feels invasive but also think it's not nearly as big a deal as if they say asked for all your current bank statements or medical and insurance records. Not saying the principle is wrong but that in the end I feel it's more of a redundant double check if what you stated as your financial profile than invasion of privacy. If you want the card go for it.

[sarge12]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I'm going to play devil's advocate and say go ahead and submit it. You were interested enough in the card to apply and like me you shop Costco on the regs and stand to benefit from the Costco Visa. If you end up getting a lower limit then you hoped for and feel like the info from your 2017 return not accurately reflecting your financial picture was at fault, you can always go for a CLI later.

The reason I say submit is this (agree or not it's essentially true): granting the authorization won't give a lender any information about you that you haven't already provided - unless you fudged some numbers. Think about it, with the exception of knowing exactly where and exactly how much income you have reported instead of maybe a job title or employer's name and a ballpark figure income, what else didn't you already put on your initial application? Name, address, dob, SSN, income, mortgage or rent, total household income perhaps. We're talking granular details about information you already submitted. I agree that it feels invasive but also think it's not nearly as big a deal as if they say asked for all your current bank statements or medical and insurance records. Not saying the principle is wrong but that in the end I feel it's more of a redundant double check if what you stated as your financial profile than invasion of privacy. If you want the card go for it.

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Name and SSN of spouse and children...charitable organizations maybe... Checking account number and routing number if refund or payment used these accounts. A tax return has much more info than I have ever put on a credit app, and who knows which employees of Citi will see this. Income verification can be done with a W2 or pay stub. Who might Citi sell this info to, described as "partners"? The 4506-T request even has a warning.

Caution: If the tax transcript is being mailed to a third party, ensure that you have filled in lines 6 through 9 before signing. Sign and date the form once you have filled in these lines. Completing these steps helps to protect your privacy. Once the IRS discloses your tax transcript to the third party listed on line 5, the IRS has no control over what the third party does with the information. If you would like to limit the third party’s authority to disclose your transcript information, you can specify this limitation in your written agreement with the third party