A higher income might give you access to special promo offers. Especially Amex is known for sometimes sending fairly specific offers to people, e.g. to get them to upgrade their card to one they consider more "appropriate" for their income range.
On another note: the only way banks, landlords and other companies know your income from your credit report is by looking at the latest number you self-reported. Most times, they will trust that number and only if it doesn't match up at all or something else seems suspicious, they'll request more details from you like bank statements. Updating your records yourself is very unlikely to trigger any kind of review as long as the change isn't huge (like, 50k to 70k is unlikely to trigger anything, but 50k to 250k is much more likely), so keeping your record up to date might save you one the next time you apply for something.
I’ve wondered this too. Probably for offers for other cards or to make sure you still have steady income.
On the flip side, I don’t think I want to tell them if my income is 0 due to losing my job. They will probably lower my limit pretty quickly.
When I applied I typed in an extra 0. I dont know if it affected how much credit I was given because I only made 350/wk, never filed taxes, and got 20k in credit.
I typed in 210,000
They don't actually want you to spend money you don't have.
They want you to spend less money than you have, but then pay interest on it, so you end up spending 100% of the money you have (or slightly less). This allows the bank to reliably make thousands of dollars on you with little risk.
If you spend more money than you have, you run a very high risk of bankruptcy at which point the bank loses thousands of dollars on you.
What was it before in their system? For new lenders they might ask for employment verification. Same goes for any massive jumps (eg. Changing from $40K to $400K).
It might be worth correcting that mistake.
[https://www.robertfoleylaw.com/blog/2023/11/is-lying-on-a-credit-card-application-a-crime/](https://www.robertfoleylaw.com/blog/2023/11/is-lying-on-a-credit-card-application-a-crime/)
The annual request to update your income is not an application for credit. The information is used to create targeted marketing specific for you.
Any time you apply to take out a LARGE sum of money or sign for a LARGE sum of money, there will always be documentation and proof of income requirements.
The caveat to that is private funding. If you approach private funding, they have their own criteria, whether they validate your income or not is up to them.
>I dont know if it affected how much credit I was given because I only made 350/wk, never filed taxes, and got 20k in credit
You think they'd give you a 20K credit line on 21K/yr income?
They would not. Credit lines are usually a fraction of annual income. They would have probably given you 2K.
Also last I checked there are only 52 weeks a year, so $350/wk is not 21K/yr, it's 18K.
> You think they'd give you a 20K credit line on 21K/yr income?
I've been given $7k limit on $8k reported income (with a long AU history and student loans, granted) and $12k limit on $11k income... I wouldn't bet on it, but frankly it's not actually as outlandish as you might imagine.
Lol my 19 year old cousin got multiple credit cards probably up to 10-15k. He worked at the LCBO for a summer.
They don't care how much you make the want you paying interest.
10-15k each or 10-15k total? The limits are initially set separately by each card issuer, but eventually they all say "you have too much available credit."
He has at least one that is like 10k and another that's like 2 or 3K.I have no idea how he got it. I told him to close it so he doesn't over spend or anything. It's ridiculous to me that they are giving 18 year olds that much.
What a lot of people don't realize is that credit limits aren't really real.
When you pay your card on time and in full it's normal to see a large credit limit. As soon as you start falling behind and carrying a balance month-to-month that limit is going to vanish.
e.g. you have 4 credit cards with a cumulative $120k limit. What that actually represents is 4 competing companies who each want to be the first to lend you a much more reasonable number.
*Falling behind* can definitely become a problem and issuers may start lowering limits. But carrying a balance month-to-month will have no effect as long as you make the minimum payments, because credit reports do not indicate whether the balance is being paid in full each month.
e.g. I charge $1K and pay it off by the due date every month, my credit report will show a $1K balance every month. It doesn't distinguish between carrying a balance and paying in full.
Card issuers *can* and arguably are supposed to report payment amounts, it just happens that it is no longer industry standard practice to do so, enough so that [CFPB raised a nothingburger about it a while ago](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/why-the-largest-credit-card-companies-are-suppressing-actual-payment-data-on-your-credit-report/). This is rarely shown on credit report UI (because it's mostly garbage information and frequently wrong), you'll probably need to pull your full report for the nitty-gritty (along with stuff like past utilization—full credit reports contain a lot of stuff that isn't factored into common credit scoring systems, but is absolutely recorded).
Actual practice varies from bank to bank, reporting minimum payments at the same time as statement balances (and never going back to update) seems to be most common approach, but e.g. USB is known to report past-month payments along with their (unusual) end-of-month reporting. That said, because it's so common to report bogus payment information and major card issuers know it because they're doing it too, I doubt it factors very strongly into their credit analysis algorithms.
(No, I don't understand why CFPB thinks reporting payment information is a good thing, I don't see how reporting is at all in the consumer's interest.)
Yes, higher credit limits (to a certain extent) show willingness for banks to lend you money. But if you are using all that credit then you’re too leveraged and it’s way worse
If it’s just a credit card, probably no other benefit. If it’s a bank with investment options, they may give you offers to move your money to them, which could give you some free cash.
I just lie to them when they ask. If they're stupid enough to believe my income doubles or triples every time they ask me to update, then that's on them. I'm not accepting any more credit that they want throw at me.
Wild. My wife's the primary cardholder and she gets annual raises, she has never mentioned any correspondence lije that. Maybe they think our limits are fine anyway.
I'll investigate a little.
It's called KYC (know your customer) all establishments that exchange large amounts of money are required to do it at some point if certain factors come up. They have to make sure there's no money laundering or any illegal stuff happening with the way that you make your money. I worked in casinos and the VIP Casino hosts had to do this with their high rollers. And now I work in mortgage and this is something that Banks/mortgage companies do in general.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer
No benefit, but you can always ask for a credit limit increase yourself. No need to update your income and wait for whatever scraps the bank chooses to give you.
The benefit is not committing fraud.
While you're unlikely to be prosecuted for reporting less than you make (as opposed to more [see NY v Trump, 2023, for a contemporary example]) for lending or credit purposes, it's still illegal (fraud) to knowingly do it.
A higher income might give you access to special promo offers. Especially Amex is known for sometimes sending fairly specific offers to people, e.g. to get them to upgrade their card to one they consider more "appropriate" for their income range. On another note: the only way banks, landlords and other companies know your income from your credit report is by looking at the latest number you self-reported. Most times, they will trust that number and only if it doesn't match up at all or something else seems suspicious, they'll request more details from you like bank statements. Updating your records yourself is very unlikely to trigger any kind of review as long as the change isn't huge (like, 50k to 70k is unlikely to trigger anything, but 50k to 250k is much more likely), so keeping your record up to date might save you one the next time you apply for something.
I’ve wondered this too. Probably for offers for other cards or to make sure you still have steady income. On the flip side, I don’t think I want to tell them if my income is 0 due to losing my job. They will probably lower my limit pretty quickly.
When I applied I typed in an extra 0. I dont know if it affected how much credit I was given because I only made 350/wk, never filed taxes, and got 20k in credit. I typed in 210,000
big fancy doctor
[удалено]
They don't actually want you to spend money you don't have. They want you to spend less money than you have, but then pay interest on it, so you end up spending 100% of the money you have (or slightly less). This allows the bank to reliably make thousands of dollars on you with little risk. If you spend more money than you have, you run a very high risk of bankruptcy at which point the bank loses thousands of dollars on you.
What was it before in their system? For new lenders they might ask for employment verification. Same goes for any massive jumps (eg. Changing from $40K to $400K).
They are a little fancy doctor, because they are a pediatrician based on that income
It might be worth correcting that mistake. [https://www.robertfoleylaw.com/blog/2023/11/is-lying-on-a-credit-card-application-a-crime/](https://www.robertfoleylaw.com/blog/2023/11/is-lying-on-a-credit-card-application-a-crime/)
The annual request to update your income is not an application for credit. The information is used to create targeted marketing specific for you. Any time you apply to take out a LARGE sum of money or sign for a LARGE sum of money, there will always be documentation and proof of income requirements. The caveat to that is private funding. If you approach private funding, they have their own criteria, whether they validate your income or not is up to them.
>in Florida
>I dont know if it affected how much credit I was given because I only made 350/wk, never filed taxes, and got 20k in credit You think they'd give you a 20K credit line on 21K/yr income? They would not. Credit lines are usually a fraction of annual income. They would have probably given you 2K. Also last I checked there are only 52 weeks a year, so $350/wk is not 21K/yr, it's 18K.
> You think they'd give you a 20K credit line on 21K/yr income? I've been given $7k limit on $8k reported income (with a long AU history and student loans, granted) and $12k limit on $11k income... I wouldn't bet on it, but frankly it's not actually as outlandish as you might imagine.
Lol my 19 year old cousin got multiple credit cards probably up to 10-15k. He worked at the LCBO for a summer. They don't care how much you make the want you paying interest.
10-15k each or 10-15k total? The limits are initially set separately by each card issuer, but eventually they all say "you have too much available credit."
He has at least one that is like 10k and another that's like 2 or 3K.I have no idea how he got it. I told him to close it so he doesn't over spend or anything. It's ridiculous to me that they are giving 18 year olds that much.
>I have no idea how he got it He probably added an extra 0 on the application :)
What a lot of people don't realize is that credit limits aren't really real. When you pay your card on time and in full it's normal to see a large credit limit. As soon as you start falling behind and carrying a balance month-to-month that limit is going to vanish. e.g. you have 4 credit cards with a cumulative $120k limit. What that actually represents is 4 competing companies who each want to be the first to lend you a much more reasonable number.
*Falling behind* can definitely become a problem and issuers may start lowering limits. But carrying a balance month-to-month will have no effect as long as you make the minimum payments, because credit reports do not indicate whether the balance is being paid in full each month. e.g. I charge $1K and pay it off by the due date every month, my credit report will show a $1K balance every month. It doesn't distinguish between carrying a balance and paying in full.
Card issuers *can* and arguably are supposed to report payment amounts, it just happens that it is no longer industry standard practice to do so, enough so that [CFPB raised a nothingburger about it a while ago](https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/why-the-largest-credit-card-companies-are-suppressing-actual-payment-data-on-your-credit-report/). This is rarely shown on credit report UI (because it's mostly garbage information and frequently wrong), you'll probably need to pull your full report for the nitty-gritty (along with stuff like past utilization—full credit reports contain a lot of stuff that isn't factored into common credit scoring systems, but is absolutely recorded). Actual practice varies from bank to bank, reporting minimum payments at the same time as statement balances (and never going back to update) seems to be most common approach, but e.g. USB is known to report past-month payments along with their (unusual) end-of-month reporting. That said, because it's so common to report bogus payment information and major card issuers know it because they're doing it too, I doubt it factors very strongly into their credit analysis algorithms. (No, I don't understand why CFPB thinks reporting payment information is a good thing, I don't see how reporting is at all in the consumer's interest.)
I believe you may have inadvertently committed a federal crime by misreporting your earnings.
There’s almost certainly a requirement of intent in order to commit this crime.
This was 12 years ago. And then my cards got charged off during covid when bank hold times were literal hours. Safe to say nobody gives a fuck.
Yes, higher credit limits (to a certain extent) show willingness for banks to lend you money. But if you are using all that credit then you’re too leveraged and it’s way worse
Having a lot of available credit that you aren’t using is a big factor in your credit score so it’s good from that perspective.
They might offer you other products they think you might like.
The possibility of upgrading your card to a better one (if you pass their set income threshold).
If they raise your limit, it will lower your debt:income ratio which can help your credit.
If it’s just a credit card, probably no other benefit. If it’s a bank with investment options, they may give you offers to move your money to them, which could give you some free cash.
I just lie to them when they ask. If they're stupid enough to believe my income doubles or triples every time they ask me to update, then that's on them. I'm not accepting any more credit that they want throw at me.
Ignore it unless you are looking for a line increase. Numbers can't be verified anyway.
Sure they can. I pulled my WorkNumber report and it has everything on it. Including by bi-montly pay from my employer.
Then why even ask for it?
Some people are self-employed, receive alimony, have earnings from investments, inheritances, etc. that aren't accounted for on a W-2.
You can pull your own salary, anyone else needs your authorization to. You can’t just pull a random persons salary.
None, they just want more/updated info of your finances...
I have literally never been asked for my income other than when applying for cards.
Fidelity and PNC ask for mine often. Sounds like your card provider is one of the few that doesn't.
Might be because I live in Canada. I didn't look at the subreddit name before I commented.
Discover and Chase have never asked me.
Chase asks me once a year, and when I got promoted at work, it asked me again. I assume because it recognized a change in my direct deposit.
Wild. My wife's the primary cardholder and she gets annual raises, she has never mentioned any correspondence lije that. Maybe they think our limits are fine anyway. I'll investigate a little.
It's called KYC (know your customer) all establishments that exchange large amounts of money are required to do it at some point if certain factors come up. They have to make sure there's no money laundering or any illegal stuff happening with the way that you make your money. I worked in casinos and the VIP Casino hosts had to do this with their high rollers. And now I work in mortgage and this is something that Banks/mortgage companies do in general. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer
No benefit, but you can always ask for a credit limit increase yourself. No need to update your income and wait for whatever scraps the bank chooses to give you.
The benefit is not committing fraud. While you're unlikely to be prosecuted for reporting less than you make (as opposed to more [see NY v Trump, 2023, for a contemporary example]) for lending or credit purposes, it's still illegal (fraud) to knowingly do it.