Income for Credit Card Apps

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@omgitsMatt wrote:

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@NimbusIII wrote:

2 things regarding credit applications and Income.  1) almost every financial institution post the following in some shape or form next to the income section, this one is from Discover. "About Total Annual Gross Income

Examples include current or reasonably expected salary, wages, bonus pay, tips, commissions and income from interest, dividends, savings, liquid assets, retirement benefits and rental property.

If you are 21 or over, you may include another person's income that is available to you.
A spouse/domestic partner is one example."

2) By law you are required to verify your income if asked and can not be asked to verify income of a partner, unless said person is listed on the account.  The law states that you can include another person's income that is available to you. The law also states that "It is assumed that if you are married that you have a resonable expection to your spouses income"

Also remember it is Gross Income that is being requested.

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Ooof.

So if I read that right, they can't ask for income verification from spouse but I _could_ take it upon myself to supply it?

Otherwise I did a no no

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Actually in the case of Disco, they won't take any additional documentation. If you can't prove what you put on there with a 4506-T, they'll close the account. Someone on reddit questioned them about why they say you can use household income and was told that it's because it's the law but that if they can't verify it, you're out of luck. 

ETA: I dug the post up. https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/dtqym2/did_discover_discriminate_against_you_account/

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That Reddit thread is interesting. The legal department must be bored. They got their friends in UW to do something so they can get sued. 

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There are more of them, I had to dig a bit to find that one. 

[Duke_Nukem]

So how about this one...

My 19yo has a Disco Chrome that just ended the 1 year cashback (so her gas and dining is the standard 2% instead of 4%).  She could use a new card for these categories, her major spend items.  She just got a job with the University she attends and will be going through orientation next month (in other words, she hasn't been paid yet).

Does she apply on a new CC app for the anticipated income for this year ($16-18k), or just report last year's income ($10k)?

[K-in-Boston]

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@Duke_Nukem wrote:

So how about this one...

My 19yo has a Disco Chrome that just ended the 1 year cashback (so her gas and dining is the standard 2% instead of 4%).  She could use a new card for these categories, her major spend items.  She just got a job with the University she attends and will be going through orientation next month (in other words, she hasn't been paid yet).

Does she apply on a new CC app for the anticipated income for this year ($16-18k), or just report last year's income ($10k)?

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There is no reason anyone should be expected to not include their reasonably expected income.  $10k to $16-18k isn't that big a jump (percentage-wise yes, whole dollar amounts no).  It would be absurd to think that someone would need to wait 2.5 years for their previous two years of tax documents to be ready for a 4506-T prior to supplying that income.  "I'm sorry Attorney X, but even though you're making $150k at the firm now, when you were still in law school back in 2017, you weren't making that so you are obviously lying."   

If these requests were commonplace, it might be a different story, but Discover's bread and butter is college students and those newer to credit that they hope to keep as lifelong cardholders.  This doesn't seem to be happening in those cases, but rather in cases where the accounts are flagged when they feel there might be a discrepency.

[Anonymous]

I am using my main income as reported on tax plus my service rating with VA letter which I download every year just in case they are asking. So far they never asked. The only time I was asked in detail of my current income was from Capital One few years aback while I was trying to request for a CLI and was rejected at that time.