Discover Is Asking For Signed Consent

[rostrow416]

Got the request after I was approved last month but before I received the card.  E-signed the form and was good to go the same day the card arrived.

It's understood that all card members will eventually receive this and either return it or lose their accounts.  So it all depends on what you feel the card is worth to you.  I wanted a Discover card so it was a no brainier.  But if this is a card you wouldn't mind closing or losing, then it shouldn't be a big deal to forget about it.

[Anonymous]

What's so bizarre about this is that there is no federal/IRS requirement or law. They did this to me and thankfully the income I reported to them was only off by a few thousand and they didn't close me. 

I can sympathize with the individuals here though. When you apply there needs to be a very specific legal discussion stating that "Even though we allow you to list you and a legal spouses income this is not sufficient when we request your annual tax returns" or something along those lines. The fac5 they allow you to put "Spousal or Other Income" down then shut you down because you did what they allowed is alarming. 

Alao, there customer service has gone way down hill. When mine was requested 6 months ago I got FIVE different answers from FIVE different supervisors.  One said "You should know it's a federal law", one said "This is to prevent fraud", third one said "Discover has to follow FCC guidelines", ( I laughed out loud on the phone when she said this ) forth one said similar to the first "This is a federal penal code that we have to follow strictly": and final supervisor told me "We audit random accounts and it's your lucky day". It's kinda sad that Discover does not train there employees right. 

i understand they are a credit card company and can do "whatever they want" but they should do things ethically and in a common sense manner. I have over $30K in credit with Amex and when they did the tax verification for me they were not even close this strict or flat out lied to me for the reason. Every rep told me the same exact thing. "We routinely audit accounts to verify the income they have on file with us is accurate". I didn't get five different stories like I did from Discover. Long story short I passed income verification but still closed the Disco card. They have sub par rewards and sub par customer service in my personal opinion. 

[Slabenstein]

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@ItsCASHual wrote:

Received an email from Disco asking me to sign consent for IRS 4506-C form. When I open it, it's really a form 4506-T, which is normally a tax transcript from IRS for income verification.

The strange thing is that I've had the Disco card for over 3 years and have not provided any income to them since the day I opened the account, nor have I requested any CLI. My limit is $5K only by there auto CLI given to me (never requested one). So I call to inquire about it and they tell me that they are having all card members eventually go through this process (in batches) to comply with credit/ lending requirements per the IRS. Then the CSR says anyone who does not complete the verification process within so many days (2 weeks I think he said), their Disco account is automatically closed for non-compliance.

I'm speechless. Have any of you Disco holders come across this yet?

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I've seen reports of Disco CSRs telling other people that after a 4506T request, but I doubt that's the real reason for them.  If it really were a matter of some sort of regulatory compliance, I don't think they would be freezing ppl's accounts while IV was pending.  Rather, that looks like something risk management would mandate if they flagged an account and want to prevent any charges until they have verification of the borrower's ability to repay. 

[thornback]

@Slabenstein last year, there was some speculation that anyone who could not be found in EQs Work Number database may have been flagged since several of those flagged were not listed - incl. myself.  Hence my theory that EQ as the middleman would also allow them to build up that database. 

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

What's so bizarre about this is that there is no federal/IRS requirement or law. They did this to me and thankfully the income I reported to them was only off by a few thousand and they didn't close me. 

I can sympathize with the individuals here though. When you apply there needs to be a very specific legal discussion stating that "Even though we allow you to list you and a legal spouses income this is not sufficient when we request your annual tax returns" or something along those lines. The fac5 they allow you to put "Spousal or Other Income" down then shut you down because you did what they allowed is alarming. 

Alao, there customer service has gone way down hill. When mine was requested 6 months ago I got FIVE different answers from FIVE different supervisors.  One said "You should know it's a federal law", one said "This is to prevent fraud", third one said "Discover has to follow FCC guidelines", ( I laughed out loud on the phone when she said this ) forth one said similar to the first "This is a federal penal code that we have to follow strictly": and final supervisor told me "We audit random accounts and it's your lucky day". It's kinda sad that Discover does not train there employees right. 

i understand they are a credit card company and can do "whatever they want" but they should do things ethically and in a common sense manner. I have over $30K in credit with Amex and when they did the tax verification for me they were not even close this strict or flat out lied to me for the reason. Every rep told me the same exact thing. "We routinely audit accounts to verify the income they have on file with us is accurate". I didn't get five different stories like I did from Discover. Long story short I passed income verification but still closed the Disco card. They have sub par rewards and sub par customer service in my personal opinion. 

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When we first called Disco regarding the 4506T request thru EQ, they said "there was no reason they would request one at account opening, especially for a secured card" and "they would never request anything thru EQ" and "it must be a scam, do not sign or submit the form because we would not have sent this to you".

Then SO got shut down with no recourse for not submitting the form - which he was only notified he would receive, but never actually received it anyway (and told it was a "scam"), and unlike so many others, they would not take bank statements and could not resend the form...

Just.

Wow.

Also, it doesn't have to be a legal spouse, just another individual that supports you, making the 4506T request even more ridiculous. Plenty of people are not married (either because they haven't, are common-law, or can't) but are a 1 income household.

[gdale6]

Yes it is something that happens to help mitigate their risk. I have had Disco since 2012 and have not been asked for it. My personal stance on it is they dont get it for a credit card no way no how.

[ItsCASHual]

I forgot to mention in original post that my balance is under $200 on $5K CL. I have decided to pay it off today and close my account. And yes it is an Equifax request in background of Discover just as @thornback mentioned upstream.

Edit: And I should mention 100% of on-time and PIF every month or only small balance reporting for over 3 years.

[Anonymous]

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@ItsCASHual wrote:

I forgot to mention in original post that my balance is under $200 on $5K CL. I have decided to pay it off today and close my account. And yes it is an Equifax request in background of Discover just as @thornback mentioned upstream.

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That's insane.  I think you are making the right move, all things considered.  I was originally on the fence but after reading up some more and following this thread, I've pretty much made up my mind that I'll keep the account open until they make this request, then immediately request that it be closed.

As long as I am making my payments on time, never exhibiting any risky behaviors to them, etc. they should give me an appropriate CLI for my profile and trust that I will do my part as I trust that they will do theirs.  To ask for a deep dive into the last two years of my financial life without any warranted cause from me specifically, well, that's just something I am not personally OK with.  There are other lenders who don't exhibit such distrust and I'd prefer to do my business with them if it comes to making that decision.

[ItsCASHual]

[Anonymous]

Hi. 

I just found this thread because the same exact thing happened to me. Not to mention at a time when I was needing to use the card for a pretty big purchase. My disco card is the highest available credit card I currently have. I purposely only have one card with such a high limit. I always heard they were a solid company so I decided to use them for that purpose. I've talked to a few customer service agents since my card has been locked and aside from one guy who was completely rude and unhelpful I've gotten basically the same information. What I've been told is the "IRS" isn't so much looking to review if your income matches but (at least in my case) if the info requested on the e-form matches thier records. More specifically what my previous address was. I've had several addresses in a short period of time before I settled down so it took a second to recall the exact address but I did. I was afraid it might be wrong and my card might be closed. Again, they never asked about verifying my income information...just my current and last address used to file my taxes. I got this explanation from two separate customer service agents. So I'm not sure if it's a different process for everyone but I do hope it finishes quickly. 

***Speaking of that, has anyone on this thread gone through the entire process and how long did it wind up taking? I'm hoping my card isn't locked for 2 plus weeks. 

Thanks in advance for any information.