How do they know how much I'm earning?

phil_d1111

In the credit rating section it mentioned "how much you are earning"

how do the credit agencies know this?
do they have some kind of link with paye? or the revenue?

jamalfatty

They dont, they assume people dont lie as you would only be taking on more debt than you can afford if you do.

They can also compare what you say you earn to things like how much your mortgage is for, is salary amount a reasonable figure for the job you say you do etc.

CopperPlate_2

And to obtain the credit based on inflated earnings would, if they discovered you had lied, absolutely destroy your future creditworthiness. There would be black marks everywhere.

YorkshireBoy

The information you supply with your application is shared with Fraud Prevention agencies. It is compared with information you have supplied on previous applications, and any anomolies are investigated. For example...

• You were earning £20K last year when you applied for card x, and now you say you're earning £45K. What's changed?
• You're 21 years old. Do you really earn £30K per annum?

Search google and the MSE site (I've posted before on this) for 'Hunter' and 'MCL Software' for further details.

CopperPlate_2

If it was as easy as just lying on your application then everyone would be doing it. You could get the i24 Morgan Stanley card (minimum income of £50k, but fee payable!) just like that! As YorkshireBoy has said, these companies have sophisticated fraud prevention technologies in place to combat just this eventuality. It's not worth it, just to get a bit of plastic. Not when you could jeopardise getting a mortgage or other form of essential credit later on.