Income for Credit Card Apps

[K-in-Boston]

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.

[Remedios]

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@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:

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@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.  

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

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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. 

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@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.

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

[K-in-Boston]

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

[Anonymous]

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. 

[omgitsMatt]

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.

[omgitsMatt]

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

[simplynoir]

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

[Anonymous]

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

[K-in-Boston]

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@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

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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.