How to report Employment status?

Anonymous · ‎07-14-2015

Hey everyone,

Kind of an odd question. I served in the Army for 6 years and was medically retired last year. I receieved a 100% P&T rating from the VA so I get a nice check from them every month. I was employed for a little bit before my wife and I moved to Colorado. I also started graduate school in February and get another stipend (on top of the disability) from the VA for going to school.

Anyway what is the best way to report my employment status? I fear if I list student and list the money I receive from the VA every month they might not take the income listed seriously. I suppose I could also list "Retired" since that pension from the VA wont go down or go away...

Thoughts anyone?

Oz

Revelate · ‎07-14-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
Hey everyone,

Kind of an odd question. I served in the Army for 6 years and was medically retired last year. I receieved a 100% P&T rating from the VA so I get a nice check from them every month. I was employed for a little bit before my wife and I moved to Colorado. I also started graduate school in February and get another stipend (on top of the disability) from the VA for going to school.

Anyway what is the best way to report my employment status? I fear if I list student and list the money I receive from the VA every month they might not take the income listed seriously. I suppose I could also list "Retired" since that pension from the VA wont go down or go away...

Thoughts anyone?
Oz

Student; no need to try to color outside the lines - there's actually a non-trivial number of students out there which make pretty solid income so you're not a singleton outlier in this regard.

Just go with the simple truth as you can prove everything you say in this case. Honestly CC issuers aren't looking for reasons to turn people down right now from the looks of it.

Anonymous · ‎07-14-2015

Besides, if they "don't take it seriously," they will probably ask you for verification (and you can call for reconsideration if they don't) and it's a very straightforward benefit to prove.

UncleB · ‎07-16-2015

I feel like you can legitimately select either and still feel like you're being completly honest... since both are truthful.

Most folks don't have any difficulty when they select 'student', as the others have stated. However, there have been a couple of cases on here where students were asked for verification of income, specifically with Capital One and American Express. In the Capital One case, the poster had a thin credit file and was asking for a CLI which is what caused his income to be verified. In the Amex case, it was a full financial review, since the poster was running a significant amount through his charge card each month while reporting himself as a student. While these two examples are outliers, the 'common thread' was they both reported being students. It's not as common for a credit card company to ask a retired person for proof of income, since generally retired folks are older and have a sufficiently thick file.

Since your income is easily verified, if I were you I would feel comfortable reporting either 'student' or 'retired', since both are true. However with some lenders you might have an occasional extra hurdle when self-reporting as a student. YMMV.

Just my 2¢.