Applying for Egg or Virgin - gross income question

MissNatalie

Hi there

I’d like to apply for an Egg Credit Card or Virgin Credit Card (for a Super Balance Transfer so that I can pay back money my sister lent me – she suddenly needs it ASAP) but I’m not sure what to put when it comes to gross annual income.

I’ve been out of the workforce for over a year (travelling and such) and have only recently started office temping again. Would it be fair enough to work out a year’s salary based on my per hour temping rate and put that as my annual income? If I try to base it on the past year my income would be pretty much zilch! Also, does anyone know what form of proof of income they require?

If anyone has applied to Egg or Virgin recently – do you know how long it takes to approve an application and how long for an SBT to come through?

Thank you

Richard019

I always put down what I expect to earn in the next 12 months. I've never been asked for any proof of my claims.

SneakySaving

I think that could be open to fraud eg.

If you said you earned £20,000 a year for a 40 hour week but only worked 20 hours and get paid £10,000. The limit set by them will be based on £20,000. If you ever fell behind or had paymet issues they would claim you used fraudelent means to gain credit.

I think?

dhassen

I'm not 100% if that would be fraud or not, but I doubt it........ isn't it the same as me saying i earn 30K, a year, but losing my job half way through the year, meanin i wont get that full 30K that year, sureley that's not fruad? Don't quote me tho, like i say i dont' know

I've got virgin and egg and they never asked me for any proof of income.

Richard019

It is open to fraud in the way described, but surely it would only be considered fraud if you had no justification for your original claim?

In my case I've been in my current job 2 years, and prior to that was doing a similar job elsewhere for 4 years. Barring illness/injury I pretty much know how much I'm going to work in a year. I also know what my payrise has been. I don't therefore view it as unreasonable for me to combine the projected hours with my current rate of pay when applying for cards.

The OP says they're just going back to office temping after around a year out. On the basis that they know how much they were working before their break and how much of the time they were out of work I wouldn't consider it unreasonable for them to make similar predictions to the ones I make.

The other way to look at it is what would you do if your income for the coming year was going to be substantially lower than the income for the year just gone, for example if you'd just gone part-time. I would have thought it was more of a fraud to put down last years earnings in that case than it is to use predicted earnings for the coming year.

MissNatalie

Thanks very much for your advice guys :T

My temping agency said that they could predict that I would be working 90% of the time based on their placement rates (this assuming that I don't opt to take time off) and they could put that in writing if I were ever asked for proof of income. Apparently they've had people in the same situation before.

I'm going to apply to Virgin tonight... wish me luck!

clio

Good luck Nat and please pop back to say you've been accepted and i hope you are

thriftymomma

That was kind of your agency. Good luck x

MissNatalie

Thanks guys, but it seems that Virgin don't want to know me. How rude!

At least the rejection was quick and brutal with no waiting around. Didn't even have time to lift my finger off the 'submit' button before I got the 'we can't give you a card this time round' line. :rolleyes:

May have to wait a few months for evidence of an income rolling (or trickling) in to appear on my account before trying for a personal loan from my own bank.