Minimum income?

[NYC_Fella]

My disabled brother-in-law hasn't had any credit for a long time (10+ years). His credit must have been good in the past because his scores are still in the 750 range. His sole income is from SSI at $1200/month. Is there a CC that he might be able to apply for successfully? No debt, no baddies, basically nothing in his file.

[pizzadude]

Have you pulled a copy of his credit reports ?  It's a positive factor that his scores are good, but I'm wondering if any of his old accounts might still be open or reporting that way on his reports ?

His income shouldn't disqualify him but may affect the size of his inital credit limits. 

[NYC_Fella]

He hasn't pulled FICO reports since he doesn't have any spare money. I guess I could subsidize him for that. His Vantage scores don't have any positive or negative info.

[SUPERSQUID]

A former poster named totally 80's kid claimed his yearly income was 11k a year and he still got cards.

Average Joes Credit claimed in the past his yearly income was around 25k and i think he has a cl of 300k on his cards

I myself have rather low income at 36k yearly between ssdi and a monthly union payment and i get good limit cards, the last few included limits of 9700, 7500, and 6k

my scores are in the 670's - 680's

[SUPERSQUID]

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@NYC_Fella wrote:

He hasn't pulled FICO reports since he doesn't have any spare money. I guess I could subsidize him for that. His Vantage scores don't have any positive or negative info.

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Join Experian, its free and thats one score and it gives plenty of info

some cards have prequalification pages that wont cause a hard pull or affect his credit score, 2 he could try -

capital one

Discover

[Anonymalous]

In addition to the free score from Experian, it's probably worthwhile to pull his credit reports (not scores) from AnnualCreditReport.com. Those come directly from the 3 bureaus, and they're provided for free as part of their reporting requirements under the FCRA. Historically, you could get a free report 1/year, plus whenever you were rejected for credit based on that report, but it's currently 1/week thanks to covid. The reports from ACR tend to be more comprehensive than reports pulled from other sites.

If he's scoreable, particularly with scores in the 750 range, there's got to be something in his files.

[SouthJamaica]

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@NYC_Fella wrote:

My disabled brother-in-law hasn't had any credit for a long time (10+ years). His credit must have been good in the past because his scores are still in the 750 range. His sole income is from SSI at $1200/month. Is there a CC that he might be able to apply for successfully? No debt, no baddies, basically nothing in his file.

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I would suggest applying for a Discover IT, an Amex BCE, or a credit union Visa or Mastercard.

[user979797]

Give Capital One a try he should be able to get their platinum card based on the info you provided and he may get lucky and even get a pre approval just check on their website; but if not it may be worth the hard pull to see if approval is possible with them. They are easy to get established with and me and my spouse both got started with them....twice.

You can also try just getting a secured card with a small security deposit and after 6 months he should qualify for better offers. Discover like others have mentioned or FNBO zero annual fee secured that also graduates or Bank of America secured which graduates as well. All of these will refund security deposit if credit is improved over time and he meets the criteria. Hope this helps and good luck.

[Anonymous]

I recommend your brother-in-law use the Capital One prequalification tool on their website. He can find out with only a harmless soft pull. For example, he can get the Quicksilver secured card for $200. He gets 1.5% cashback on everything as he's building great credit. Then in time, his Quicksilver card will automatically graduate to non-secured.

[Guyatthebeach]

NYC_Fella,

Your brother-in-law shouldn't worry about his income. When I was rebuilding after my bankruptcy, my income was next to nothing, and I was able to get approved for a couple of credit cards. Creditors only care about income to verify the ability to repay.

I suggest that he check out CapitalOne, Discover, FNBO, regional banks(like Regions & Truist) for preapproval offers. He may get low credit lines, but it's a start. Trust me with some work and perseverance, he will get approved for something. After ten years post chapter 7 bankruptcy, I now have over $1 million in total unsecured  credit lines for both personal and business credit cards and LOC's. If I can do, so can he.

There are some threads on cards you can get that are only soft hits and building credit with minimum income.

Guyatthebeach