Credit Card Application - annual income question

JLO43

Does "annual income" only mean from your employer or do we include other income such as child benefit income and/or tax credits? Thanks.

Bestselling_Author

It's "Annual Income" not "Annual Salary". Your benefits are part of your income. When I worked for a High Street bank opening current accounts, I had a customer who said her annual income was her state pension ... at the time, just over £6,500. As the application continued then she happened to mention the other £30,000 a year she got from a trust fund! As far as the bank was concerned she had £36,000 a year at her disposal to spend.

JLO43

Thank you for your help

InsideInsurance

It does vary between providers and if you want to be 100% safe you should check with the company in question. I have heard that some wont include "child" benefits because they are for the child not the parents but others do count it

eddddy

Hi JLO43

You also need to be consistent about the figure you give as "income" with all companies you apply to.

Many of them share the information as an anti-fraud measure. So if you tell one credit card company that your income is £10,000 and another credit card company that your income is £20,000, they might flag you as a possible fraudster.

(National Hunter run the central database - there's some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hunter)

InsideInsurance

eddddy wrote: »

Hi JLO43

You also need to be consistent about the figure you give as "income" with all companies you apply to.

Many of them share the information as an anti-fraud measure. So if you tell one credit card company that your income is £10,000 and another credit card company that your income is £20,000, they might flag you as a possible fraudster.

(National Hunter run the central database - there's some info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Hunter)

And this is where the problem comes because different lenders have different definitions so if you comply with their definitions you must give different answers and so these issues arise.

I have similar issues with employment status, legally I am employed as I work for a Ltd company but because I am the major shareholder of that company a few companies insist that I list myself as self employed as that is their company policy despite my legal status.

de_sales2

And 17 months later Martin STILL hasn't brought pressure to bear on the financial regulators asking them to require National Hunter to rewrite its software so this HORRIFIC anomaly is removed?

chanz4

de_sales2 wrote: »

And 17 months later Martin STILL hasn't brought pressure to bear on the financial regulators asking them to require National Hunter to rewrite its software so this HORRIFIC anomaly is removed?

its because he doesn't have legal standing, and is a reporter

GingerBob_3

chanz4 wrote: »

its because he doesn't have legal standing, and is a reporter

He doesn't need legal standing. He's a high profile individual who, by various means, can bring pressure to bear on the regulators. Unregulated databases such as National Hunter (run by Experian), which are stuffed full of hearsay, are greatly in need of control.

chanz4

GingerBob wrote: »

He doesn't need legal standing. He's a high profile individual who, by various means, can bring pressure to bear on the regulators. Unregulated databases such as National Hunter (run by Experian), which are stuffed full of hearsay, are greatly in need of control.

but no more different than any news paper

steevio_uk

One thing to be aware of is that you may be checked by how much actually goes into your bank account.

CallCredit is sometimes used which checks your stated income to what has been going into the account and gives a feedback rating. If it is pretty accurate it will give a positive response. For some companies, if it is less than you stated, but within 10%, then it will advise so. If it is over 10% less, then it will come back negative of advise caution.
It also states your income change over the last 3, 6 & 12 months.

If you are putting higher figures on your forms, or have inconsistent figures across applications, it could work against you.

Not saying it's true for this company, but just something to be mindful of.:)