Minimum Income Needed for Student Card

[Anonymous]

Do banks have a minimum income requirement for their credit cards, specifically their student cards? My sister is trying to get one, but doesn't have a lot of income. I know banks normally require you to make a certain percentage over your rent, but what if your rent is 0 and you literally have no traditional expenses? She has no bills whatsoever so any income she has can go directly to her credit card bill. Would $2000 a year be enough? $4000? $8000?

[Anonymous]

If she's living with parents she could use household income. Not sure what minimum income is but if she only making 2k a year she would be wise to wait until she making alot more income. IMO it's very easy to get in debt

[medicgrrl]

I don't think household income can be used until over the age of 21.

[Anonymous]

It seems like I have heard 12K, but I can't remember the source or provide proof.

The household income caveat requires that you have reasonable access to the funds. So unless sis has unlimited access to mom and dad's accounts without repercussions, she couldn't legally and ethically use that income.

[BronzeTrader]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Do banks have a minimum income requirement for their credit cards, specifically their student cards? My sister is trying to get one, but doesn't have a lot of income. I know banks normally require you to make a certain percentage over your rent, but what if your rent is 0 and you literally have no traditional expenses? She has no bills whatsoever so any income she has can go directly to her credit card bill. Would $2000 a year be enough? $4000? $8000?

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This is hard to define. YMMV.  If parents pay $30,000/year tuition, $10,000 room & board, $5,000 all other living expenses.  What is the minor's income?  Some say the entire $45,000/year.  Some say just the $5,000/year.  Some say the kid does not make anything.  So what is correct??

The same, someone can be making $250,000/year, but paying 2 mortages, 3 cars, a yachet.  The other guy making $85,000/year, but have no mortage and drives an old pickup, have save $30,000/year.

Who should have better credit??

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone. She does make around $2K from summer work, but my mom also gives her money each week for food and necessary expenses. So she wouldn't have access to all my mom's money, but to some of it. So I guess she could figure out how much she gets per week and add that into her income?

[Anonymous]

This is gonna vary by bank, after the CARD Act Congress made it tougher on banks to give out cards like 🍬 w/o vetting that the kid could actually afford a card.

Ppl complained about 'allowing' folks to run up debt, so political pressure forced CHANGE in how it's done.
Back in my youth, they'd be on campus throwing cards literally like 🍬

Now the company as to show good faith they vetted a "payer" different banks use different standards, some will have a generic $1000/mo barrier, others will just want X amount above stated rent cause they're only gonna approve a SL if $500/$1000 anyway.

Some of this can be 'gamed' by high credit scores, as many systems use automated 60 second online approvals

The best bet IMO is to have Mom add sissy as an AU on a couple of of her low usage CCs, which will bump sissy's score and mask her profile ( temporarily) enough to secure a couple decent approvals of her own

Mom doesn't have to issue Sis an actual card nor give her access, it's just for report purposes
When our kids turned 18 we did the same thing, my son's score popped up in the 700's he was approved no problem...my daughter two years later got her 2 quick cards (NFCU and Chase) no problem... neither knows what a denial feels like ( I was ticked that the boy got better rates than me😵)
Good Luck to sissy