INCOME VERIFICATION (DISCOVER)

[Anonymous]

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@bostonte wrote:

Several companies offer it, TALX being one of the largest. Among other things, they do HR/Tax/Personnel management for your employer.

The service has access to your income because they have your W2.

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To expand on what bostonte said, check out this article:

"Lenders plan to guess your income from credit report"

http://www.walletpop.com/2010/02/07/lenders-plan-to-guess-your-income-from-credit-report/

excerpt:

"Nichole Mustard, vice president of strategy for Credit Karma, told me in a telephone interview that credit reporting agencies have been guessing at income for a long time based on your credit usage, payment history and credit availability. While the accuracy of these income estimation models do vary, right now, she says these models are right about 75% to 85% of the time.

But Mustard believes that as income becomes a more important factor in credit making decisions with the new provisions of the CARD Act, the credit reporting firms will improve their data collecting and software programs for guessing income.

Credit issuers also have the ability to access an Equifax database, called the TALX database, which includes data from 150 million employment records. These databases are now used primarily by human resource personnel to check the accuracy of a job application, but they could be used for credit approval as the data from these income sources may become more critical in credit applications."

[Cotton_Britches]

How do they verify income for the self employed? Do you have to allow access to IRS records?

[Anonymous]

Here's another article

"Who's peeking at your paycheck?"

By The Wall Street Journal

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Banking/YourCreditRating/look-who-is-peeking-at-your-paycheck.a...

[Anonymous]

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@Amnesia87 wrote:

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@CUFINANCE wrote:

App'd online but because of fraud alert had to call in.  Rep said they use a 3rd party vendor and asked if my income included overtime.  They knew exaclty what i make.

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Methinks they weren't speaking 100% of the truth.

Try and get pay information for someone else... anyone else... that information is not public record, which is why you see alot of banks and whatnot asking for paystubs and w-2s.

Keep in mind that your income sometimes shows on your credit report... espcially if you have apped other cards, and consistently list the same value.

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Income does not show on one's credit report.

That said, there is a service that is available to lenders that estimates your income based on data contained within your credit report.

[CUFINANCE]

Discover was able to obtain my exact income through The Work Number.  I rounded up a bit and they called me out on it.

[Anonymous]

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@CUFINANCE wrote:

Discover was able to obtain my exact income through The Work Number.  I rounded up a bit and they called me out on it.

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Here's an article about this service:

"Guess Who Knows How Much You Earn Each Week? Company Collects, Sells Your Salary Info to Lenders, Employers"
by Carrie Teegardin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

http://www.imakenews.com/accushred/e_article001029037.cfm?x=b11,0,w

excerpt:

"The Work Number, a little-known product of Atlanta-based Equifax, captures the salaries and job titles of 46 million Americans every time they collect a paycheck. That represents about a third of the American workforce.

For the past decade, The Work Number has been warehousing and selling this information to lenders and employers who want to verify incomes or conduct background checks.

[...] The company won't disclose exactly how many individuals appear in its database. But it says it has 165 million employment records that cover both current workers and former employees.

[...] The Work Number is part of St. Louis-based TALX Corp., which was acquired last year by Equifax."

[Anonymous]

You have the right to contact The Work Number and request a copy of your Employment Data Report

http://www.theworknumber.com/Employees/DataReport/report_request.pdf

http://www.imakenews.com/accushred/e_article001029037.cfm?x=b11,0,w

excerpt:

"Consumers can review and dispute information held in The Work Number's files. That access is made available to consumers as part of the company's pledge to voluntarily comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, a law that requires openness and accuracy from companies that sell consumer reports. Companies that buy reports from The Work Number must also agree to follow the federal law, which requires that consumers be notified if information in a consumer report costs them a job or a loan."

http://www.theworknumber.com/Employees/DataReport/

 excerpt:

"Employment Data Report contains:
    * Employment and income information from employers who have provided information about you to The Work Number.
    * Information about lenders, credit agencies, and other verifiers that have received your information.
    * Any messages, alerts, or remarks you have asked us to include with your information."

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@CUFINANCE wrote:

Discover was able to obtain my exact income through The Work Number.  I rounded up a bit and they called me out on it.

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Here's an article about this service:

"Guess Who Knows How Much You Earn Each Week? Company Collects, Sells Your Salary Info to Lenders, Employers"
by Carrie Teegardin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

http://www.imakenews.com/accushred/e_article001029037.cfm?x=b11,0,w

excerpt:

"The Work Number, a little-known product of Atlanta-based Equifax, captures the salaries and job titles of 46 million Americans every time they collect a paycheck. That represents about a third of the American workforce.

For the past decade, The Work Number has been warehousing and selling this information to lenders and employers who want to verify incomes or conduct background checks.

[...] The company won't disclose exactly how many individuals appear in its database. But it says it has 165 million employment records that cover both current workers and former employees.

[...] The Work Number is part of St. Louis-based TALX Corp., which was acquired last year by Equifax."

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Their website is quite illuminating.

Nice how my employer doesn't participate. 

On a related note, I can see this service could have unlimited potential for use by judgment creditors and even debt collectors.   

[smc733]

Even though I'm always 100% honest about income, this is worse than Amex asking for a 4506.  Can't wait to dump Discover.

[DI]

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@CUFINANCE wrote:

Just wanted to let everyone know that Discover now uses a third party for income verification.  Called in tonight and was approved for a card, but was surprised by them knowing my exact income.  No wiggle room anymore it seems.

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Is this affecting only new applicants during the application process, or will it affect current members during an account review?    My days requesting CLIs are over as I want to stay under my creditors radar.