MBNA application - commission and bonuses?

northofthewall

I've been preapproved for an MBNA card via the Eligibility Calculator and am in the process of doing MBNA's own application. I'm intending to do a money transfer to get out of my overdraft and then put anything left over towards my Natwest credit card balance.

For the calculator I entered my basic salary, which is 21k. However MBNA are asking for my annual income before tax "including salaries, fees, commissions, interest, dividends etc". I work in sales so get quite a bit extra in commission and bonuses; last year I think I earned around 30k in total before tax. I didn't include it in the calculator because it's performance based and not guaranteed (and I'd have to go away and find all my old payslips to work out the exact figure!), and if the pre-approval is as accurate as it says it is I will get the minimum amount I want to borrow based on my 21k.

But now I'm wondering if they're going to pick up on the discrepancy somehow and think something fishy is going on - and of course I'm also thinking if I put my full income in that could make it more likely I'll get enough to pay off my existing credit card as well as my overdraft!

Any advice? Will they really lend me more based on 9k which I might or might not earn depending on how hard I work / whether my clients have any money / the whims of fate? Will I be turned down if my salary is more than I said it was?

Second question: does anyone know how long these things take to go through?

jonesMUFCforever

Use the figures from your P60.

northofthewall

Good idea, but my income for the 2014-15 tax year was much lower as I only started this job summer 2015 and wasn't earning much commission at first. I'd prefer not to wait until I get this year's P60 before applying.

Is there any reason - other than a potentially higher credit limit - why I couldn't just put my basic salary?

northofthewall

All sorted now, but for anyone else who finds this thread looking for an answer to the same question: I went ahead and applied using my basic salary, it went through no problems with a credit limit more than double what I needed.