Capital One Email Requesting Income Review...

[Anonymous]

I got an email from Capital One asking me to review my income info... a.k.a... update my income info online.

Email states it is to check my eligablity for possible CLIs and other offers in the future..etc

I understand that in general, from time-to-time some CCCs may want to check in to see if your finanicals may have changed, but I am not too keen on clicking on the botton to do this. 

In these finanical times, with lenders slashing people's credit limits, even on the accounts of good customers, in order reduce the CCCs potential exposure, I am concerned that this email could just be a precuror to them probing for a reason to reduce credit lines of customers.

I currently have excellent credit with my Capital One cards. Pay on time, and have make very large payments ( $1000 - $2500 ) each month for the last 4-5 months to reduce balances...etc. I have not been making new charges though while paying down the balance, so I guess the could in of itself give them a reason to reduce CLs.

I have a 30K CL on one of their cards with a 30% UTL.

Another card with a $3,500 CL with a 1% UTL

And a 3rd card with a $500 CL with a $0 balance..

I have been making the same such large payments the last 4-5 months on all my other non-Cap One accounts too...
My current overall credit ULT on all my credit accounts is around 40% right now, but as I said I have been paying everything down rapidly for the last 4-5 months, so there should be no indication of any credit distress in these higher risk economic times.

While there has been a significant decline to my income level since I opened these Capital One cards a couples of years ago, it has not affected my payments. None the less, I am concerned that reporting a signficant drop in income will just lead to them reducing my credit lines.

I am fine with the credit limits I currently have, and do not want any CLI on any of my accounts, but I also certainly do not want my CLs decreased either if I can avoid it for now. I might be trying to shoot for mortage toward the end of the year, and have been on a mission to get my overall UTL down to 10% - 20% range well before I do that. Thus, the last thing I need now is for any CCC to start reducing CLs on me after I have been paying down these accounts extremely well.

That all said, a number of months back Elan Finanical reduced my CL on my Fidelity Visa not long after sending a similar request to update income info. I ignored that email from Elan because I didn't want them to know I had a change of income, but not long after that email my CL was reduces anyway by about 25%...  Thus, now I am not sure if I should ignore Capital One's income update email too. Seems I could be darned if I do, and maybe darned if I don't... 

It says nothing in the email about it being a manditory income update though, so should I just ignore it until later in the year after I do what I want to do with my credit score and possible mortage app ?

The contents of their email was this...

=========

"Take a moment to review your income info. This helps us connect you with offers you may be eligible for.
Review My Income
Re: Your account number ending in xxxx
Now more than ever, Capital One® is committed to providing you with great card products and services that meet your needs.
To help you get the most from your account, we’d like to ask you a few brief questions about your current income and employment status. This will allow us to better serve you now and in the future.
If your income has recently changed, you’ll find a list of acceptable sources to consider as you review. Keep in mind, you can sign in to update your income info again at any time under Account Settings.
Take a moment to securely review your income info now. Updating online takes less than 60 seconds. If you aren’t able to update online, call 1‑800‑200‑3048 for our automated service. Capital One will never ask you to validate information such as your user ID, password or account numbers. If you receive a request like this, please let us know right away by calling the number on the back of your card.
Thank you for being a Capital One customer.
Review My Income
Why review your income?
You’ll be considered for eligible offers, such as future credit line increases.
Reviewing online is secure, quick and easy.
The process takes less than 60 seconds. "

======================

[ocheosa]

OP you mention the last few months income declined, assuming this is due to the pandemic restrictions. You might just reply using whatever is on your income tax returns 2018 or 2019. They are still processing 2019 but if they should ask for proof of income you could provide your 2018-2019 W2's and or 2018 tax retuns.

I use net income on all credit card apps vs gross, just so I will never feel the need to duck a financial inquiry.  Lucky too since I went through one a few months back with BBVA. Interestingly enough it was over too many large payments. They wanted to make sure my income backed up large [transactions] payments since account was considered new. That was the reason they used to justify the FR. I was going to close the account once complete but ended up requesting a CLI and they gave me a huge bump.

Moral of the story, if you want the account, provide the info found on the document most use to validate income. If you don't care whether they CLD or close, ignore it and pretend they are only updating records. The good news - it's your choice, they haven't frozen  your CL to make you play along. Good luck in whatever you decide !

[Remedios]

Normally these are routine "Legally we have to ask", however lately there has been several reports of Capital One asking to "understand your income" when person is no longer employed or income has changed because they are utilizing services such as Work Number 

If your payroll service provides income info to any of those agencies, they would be aware of the change. 

Regardless of your great payment history with them, you would want to report correct income, because you can already imagine what happens if they have access to independent source of information. 

That's even without mentioning legal and ethical implications of reporting incorrect income. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips. No, the income drop wasn't due to the pandemic. Actually my income reduced significally the first year after getting the cards, and also reduced even more the year after that too, so whether I use my tax data from my 2018, or 2019 return, it will still show a significant reduction, and I fear they would reduce my CL in spite of the fact I have made all my payments even during this pandemic - big payments too.

I am not so much worried about a CL reduction on the $500 CL card, or the $3,500 CL card. Not much lower they can go on those one since it's not that high a CL to begin with, so losing a $1000 off those isn't a big deal if it comes to that. I am more concerned with the 30K CL that I have on the other card. That would be a bummer.  Plus, I am worried that reporting this income change to them, will then somehow be seen by my other credit card lenders who haven't even asked for any finanical updates yet, and then those CLs would be reduced too.

I will probably just end up ignoring the email for now, I then update my income with them later in the year after I get to where I want I want to with my score, and possible run at a mortage...etc. There was no sense of urgency indicated in their email. As I mentioned it did not indict that it was manditory or urgent right now.

Ha ha.. Funny that your large payments acutally prompted them to do the FR - or so they claim..  I guess it is hard to figure these credit card companies sometimes. It's like no matter what you do sometimes, there oft times seems there is something for them to be feel nervous about, or say that you are not doing something right..etc. They alienate the very good customers they have sometimes I think. 

[blindambition]

Hi OP,

Lenders are required to ask that once a year. It's a standard request. One that might cause stress and anxiety in current climate.

As @Remedios stated, there's ways they collect this information. Best to be honest. If nothing has changed, clicking save updates with updated date.

[Anonymous]

---

@Remedios wrote:

Normally these are routine "Legally we have to ask", however lately there has been several reports of Capital One asking to "understand your income" when person is no longer employed or income has changed because they are utilizing services such as Work Number 

If your payroll service provides income info to any of those agencies, they would be aware of the change. 

Regardless of your great payment history with them, you would want to report correct income, because you can already imagine what happens if they have access to independent source of information. 

That's even without mentioning legal and ethical implications of reporting incorrect income. 

---

Thanks.. That is good info to know.

The contents of their email was this...

"Take a moment to review your income info. This helps us connect you with offers you may be eligible for.
Review My Income
Re: Your account number ending in xxxx
Now more than ever, Capital One® is committed to providing you with great card products and services that meet your needs.
To help you get the most from your account, we’d like to ask you a few brief questions about your current income and employment status. This will allow us to better serve you now and in the future.
If your income has recently changed, you’ll find a list of acceptable sources to consider as you review. Keep in mind, you can sign in to update your income info again at any time under Account Settings.
Take a moment to securely review your income info now. Updating online takes less than 60 seconds. If you aren’t able to update online, call 1‑800‑200‑3048 for our automated service. Capital One will never ask you to validate information such as your user ID, password or account numbers. If you receive a request like this, please let us know right away by calling the number on the back of your card.
Thank you for being a Capital One customer.
Review My Income
Why review your income?
•
You’ll be considered for eligible offers, such as future credit line increases.
•
Reviewing online is secure, quick and easy.
•
The process takes less than 60 seconds. "

[Anonymous]

---

@blindambition wrote:

Hi OP,

Lenders are required to ask that once a year. It's a standard request. One that might cause stress and anxiety in current climate.

As @Remedios stated, there's ways they collect this information. Best to be honest. If nothing has changed, clicking save updates with updated date.

---

Yes, I would be honest about the information I give them. I will not lie. However, I wonder if it matters when I respond to this email.. Since the email doesn't indicate any maditory date as to when you should respond, then maybe I can just wait until December and update the info then ?   But, as the other member said, they may eventually source the infomation elsewhere themselves before I update it myself.

[AzCreditGuy]

Sounds like they are Evaluating their credit risk by seeing how many people have become unemployed. I keep getting deined for a CLI on the basis of my account usage has been too low..

[ocheosa]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks for the tips. No, the income drop wasn't due to the pandemic. Actually my income reduced significally the first year after getting the cards, and also reduced even more the year after that too, so whether I use my tax data from my 2018, or 2019 return, it will still show a significant reduction, and I fear they would reduce my CL in spite of the fact I have made all my payments even during this pandemic - big payments too.

I am not so much worried about a CL reduction on the $500 CL card, or the $3,500 CL card. Not much lower they can go on those one since it's not that high a CL to begin with, so losing a $1000 off those isn't a big deal if it comes to that. I am more concerned with the 30K CL that I have on the other card. That would be a bummer.  Plus, I am worried that reporting this income change to them, will then somehow be seen by my other credit card lenders who haven't even asked for any finanical updates yet, and then those CLs would be reduced too.

I will probably just end up ignoring the email I guess. As I mentioned it did not indict that it was manditory, and I feel 90+% sure that if I were to give them an income update, they'd seize the opportunity to slash my CLs... I could live with losing a few thousdand off my CL on the 30K card, but if they were to cut the CL in half or something I'd be very unhappy with that of course.. 

Ha ha.. Funny that your large payments acutally prompted them to do the FR - or so they claim..  I guess it is hard to figure these credit card companies sometimes. It's like no matter what you do sometimes, there oft times seems there is something for them to complain about or feel nervous about, or say that you are not doing right... They alienate the very good customers they have a lot of times. 

---

I don't have many personal expenses anymore. I actually use BTs and payoff in 6 months (9 months if more than one) to build a payment history. Any way, I used one of their no fee conv checks and paid it off within the same month to not incur interest and that was flagged as a possible security risk. Could have been money laundering the agent from the dept told me as she was reviewing the final documents and releasing the hold. At first I was mortified, offended and plain old pissed off .... emotions you should never have to experience all within seconds. But once I hung up and thought about it, I laughed my ____ off !! Hell I wish I had that much money !!  Needless to say I called back a few days later, now perky and smiling and said, Hey, I'm interested in a CLI !

I've never received an email request like that from Cap One but then I update my income every 6 months trying for a CLI that never seems to happen. Well not counting the $500 on the savor one but then I digress. The only reason I keep the venture one and QS open at the moment is the ability to float no fee BTs; otherwise they would have been closed.

Sure hope this all works out for you !

[longtimelurker]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@blindambition wrote:

Hi OP,

Lenders are required to ask that once a year. It's a standard request. One that might cause stress and anxiety in current climate.

As @Remedios stated, there's ways they collect this information. Best to be honest. If nothing has changed, clicking save updates with updated date.

---

Yes, I would be honest about the information I give them. I will not lie. However, I wonder if it matters when I respond to this email.. Since the email doesn't indicate any maditory date as to when you should respond, then maybe I can just wait until December and update the info then ?   But, as the other member said, they may eventually source the infomation elsewhere themselves before I update it myself.

---

Personally I would (and do, for Chase) just ignore it.   There seems little upside to responding.