Is it a serious crime to lie about your wage?

Ryan.Maloney

Is it acceptable to round up £21,800 a year to £22,000?

Ofcourse, honesty is always the best policy

Out of curiousity - do people go to jail for fraud for lying about this? Can the companies check? (Do they ring up employers?)

Mercuryrising

I doubt £200 a year out is the greatest crime. For ages I didn't even remember my exact salary so I just rounded up to the nearest £500 and it didnt' affect me getting credit.

maforduk

I don't think that it matter's for that amount. It depends on the other hand that if something did happen that made the bank check your information, you will be liable.

Ryan.Maloney

..and what if I lied and said I earned £32,000 instead of £22,000?

Astaroth

Rounding up (unless you prefix it with approximately) would be fraud and it would be possible (though highly unlikely) to go to jail for it.

The more likely outcome if they were to check would be that you get loaded onto the national fraud registers as 1st party fraud and they cancel the accounts and ask for all monies owed to be paid back immediately.

Under data protection most employers wouldnt just give your details out over the phone but banks do have agreements to share information (which has to be stated in the T&Cs) so they could phone the fraud department of the bank that holds your current account and ask what you salary going into the account is and see if it is wildly different from what you would expect.

Alternatively they can ask you to sign a data protection release form so they can approach your employers for conformation and failure to comply would be against the T&Cs of the account resulting in the cancellation/ immediate repayment and a loading for suspected fraud.

It is fairly unusual for banks/ insurers to request the police to press charges but certainly not unheard of - it is more common for the police to approach them stating they are already prosecuting the person and can the bank add anything else to it - then the bank will often add their grieviance to the existing list.

Ryan.Maloney

What is a realistic figure for me to ask for?

I can apply for a loan from £3000 to £25,0000

I rent (£400/month). My partner earns £30,000

I am 25 years old with a good credit history

But my job is - administration (i.e. office work - typing, faxing etc.)



What is a realistic amount I can ask for? (i.e. I bet the £25,000 loan is reserved for high earners like lawyers...)

Mercuryrising

Egg offered me a guaranteed loan of at least £20,000 a few years ago when I was just earning £20K. So no not for high earners.

But the best form of advice I would give is to borrow at least as possible. Once you go deeper in the debt trap, it's much more difficult to get out.

What do you need the loan for (can I ask)?

Ryan.Maloney

It's to pay off other loans.

Ryan.Maloney

Thanks for the tip mate.

I'll stick with the truth.

Old_iron_balls

Ryan.Maloney wrote:

It's to pay off other loans.

Hi Ryan, do a search under 'consolidation loan'
Looks like a good idea at the time but in the long run you could be paying off more in interest and others will agree consolidation can be a ticket to further debt.
maybe post on the Debt-free wannabe board and see if there is anything they/we can do to help.
Good luck :beer:

ms_london

Ryan

How about having a look at the debt free wannabe board?

Consolidation loans arent always a good idea...

What is your current level of debt? How much were you looking to borrow?

xx