Credit card application after 7 months out of work

Alocin9

I would like to apply for a new credit card so that I am able to do a credit transfer from my current high interest rate Amex credit card. However, I have just returned from 7 months of travelling and have yet to receive my first pay slip upon returning to work. I am worried that I will be declined and damage my credit score (currently at 999). What information do they check and how can I find out if I will be accepted?

TadleyBaggie

They will certainly want to confirm what income you have, have you any?

eskbanker

Alocin9 said:

I have just returned from 7 months of travelling and have yet to receive my first pay slip upon returning to work. I am worried that I will be declined and damage my credit score (currently at 999).

This is a textbook illustration of how meaningless 'credit scores' are, if someone presumably without income for 7 months but carrying a balance still retains a perfect 'score'!

Alocin9 said:

What information do they check

They don't check the 'score', as this is just a made-up number for consumers to obsess about, but they'll look at the underlying data about your credit accounts, limits, repayment history, income, addresses, etc, basically all the stuff you can see on your credit reports.

Alocin9 said:

how can I find out if I will be accepted?

Apart from actually applying, you can get indicative ideas via eligibility checkers such as https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/search/?goal=CC_BALTRANSFERV2

th081

I would check direct on credit cards site. The mse one told me I had a 90% chance of acceptance with santander then i got rejected. Tried last night on the MBNA site and it's said 100% acceptance on the soft check and I got accepted. With the soft check it does not appear on your record.

For me as long as you are working then I think it's fine to apply.

th081

How big is your debt, that will be a factor as well. Also has your debt hone down over the last few months. Plus use your work email rather than a free one 

Brie

th081 said:

How big is your debt, that will be a factor as well. Also has your debt hone down over the last few months. Plus use your work email rather than a free one 

This may cause an issue with an employer.  Not all of them are happy if employees use their work email for anything other than work.  

mr_stripey

Brie said:

th081 said:

How big is your debt, that will be a factor as well. Also has your debt hone down over the last few months. Plus use your work email rather than a free one 

This may cause an issue with an employer.  Not all of them are happy if employees use their work email for anything other than work.  

yep, my employer definitely doesn't allow the use of work email for personal stuff. Of course, I doubt they check everything but I certainly wouldn't risk it, especially so early on in the OP's employment

th081

mr_stripey said:

Brie said:

th081 said:

How big is your debt, that will be a factor as well. Also has your debt hone down over the last few months. Plus use your work email rather than a free one 

This may cause an issue with an employer.  Not all of them are happy if employees use their work email for anything other than work.  

yep, my employer definitely doesn't allow the use of work email for personal stuff. Of course, I doubt they check everything but I certainly wouldn't risk it, especially so early on in the OP's employment

Really some employers are that explicit. Mine just has a reasonable cause for work IT. In any case I doubt it will make a diff but if I was creating a credit scoring model I was give a few extra marks for a non free email.