Credit Card Blog

Imagine that you’re looking to get a credit card, and you’re a student. You probably don’t have a conventional steady income, well - the vast majority of students don’t! So, you’ve had a look and decided on which credit card suits you most.. now for the applying part.

After filling in all your details you get a question “”What is your income”. Ah - why are they asking this, and what should I input? This is one of those questions that seems to be a bit loaded… do I need an income to be able to get this card or are they just curious?

A lot of credit card providers specify that to be eligible you DO have to have a minimum income. Researching this for the card you want is the best thing to do here, but we’ve done a bit for you below and hopefully we’ll help you with filling this in so it’s both accurate and gives you the best chance of getting accepted.

Why do some providers specify a minimum income?

Very simply, if they are going to lend you money, they want to know that you can repay it. If you’re not earning anything, then the chances of you being able to repay are lower. It would be irresponsible to lend someone money when you know they won’t be able to give it back (no sarcastic comments please!)

There are also potentially other reasons that there are minimum requirements, and generally the higher the minimum requirement the more perks the card has got.. (If you have loads of money, you get more goodies thrown at you and you may well have access to more credit)

What does “income” actually mean?

This is a really good question - if you’re studying, and you don’t have a job then you may think you have no income. This is not necessarily true.. For the Student Barclaycard, they state that when you are inputting your income you should “Include loans, awards, salary, pension investments and rental income“.

All of a sudden you may well have an income! Student loan, grants (such as maintenance grants), hardship loans, bursaries and even loans to pay for tuition fees could be eligible. Student Barclaycard have defined what they mean by income above - and this is something you should stick to.

So in the question - what is your income, you may well actually have quite a decent figure to input!

What do the credit card companies require?

Some require a minimum income level, others don’t. Student Barclaycard have stated that to be eligible for the card you have to be over 18 and are entering or in full-time education, and you must have a permanent UK address. There are a few other requirements - but NOTHING about income level.

For a Virgin credit card there is no mention of a required minimum income, and it says that anyone cn apply as long as they are over 18, they live in the UK and they have a bank or building society account. This also applies to Egg.

By the way - for more information on these cards, see the credit card comparison table

Halifax state: “Please note you need to be over 18 & a UK resident with regular income in order to apply” - but student loans and grants could very well be intrepreted as meeting this criteria still.

To summarise, if you’re applying for a credit card, make sure you have worked out your income and are ready to input it. It needs to include all the things mentioned above, as this will be an accurate reflection of the money you are getting. By just knowing and understanding what to put in this field you’ll increase the chances of you being accepted.

Good luck!

If you do want more information on credit cards and comparison of the best deals check out the student credit card comparison table - student deals, but most of them are open to everyone.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 11:41 am and is filed under Uncategorized.
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