Regarding Credit Card Application, Cards With Low Income Requirements?

I was recommended recently that I get a credit card, as I will be doing a lot of travelling alone and I've been told many hotels require to have a credit card on file, and not a debit card. I've began looking for a card then and found one with fairly good cashback, but got rejected. I wanted to then apply to for one from the bank I'm already with, but their minimum annual income is above what I earn.

Thing is, does it actually matter and is it something they check? Could I enter a much higher amount just to get accepted? I assume my own bank would as they have access to all my transactions, so they could see that I don't earn that much per year, but if I went back to that previous card I wanted, or any other bank, do they actually check/care? Alternatively, are there any UK banks that are a lot easier to get credit cards from I could try with instead? Or does it not even matter and I don't need a credit card to check in at hotels anyway?

Reply 1

martin7

Original post by gh158

You're probably not going to be able to get a card with cashback as your first credit card.

You need to look products like Barclaycard Forward (https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/credit-cards/forward) -- other similar products are available from other banks -- which are designed as a "first" credit card.

Thing is, does it actually matter and is it something they check? Could I enter a much higher amount just to get accepted? I assume my own bank would as they have access to all my transactions, so they could see that I don't earn that much per year, but if I went back to that previous card I wanted, or any other bank, do they actually check/care?

Banks can check what you declare on the application form. If they do check and they find you've given inaccurate information, then they may register a marker with Cifas for "application fraud". Having a Cifas marker against you will make it virtually impossible to get any financial product for the duration it's on your record; and that's up to six years.