Chase doubles initial CL if you don't list employment, why?

I normally get about a 6-8K initial CL from Chase, whereas my spouse who doesn't work usually gets around 11-13K (our credit histories are virtually identicalwith same household income). This has been puzzling me for years, so I decided to apply for my most recent card (Chase Cash rewards) leaving the employer and employment status fields blank. Today I received the card with a 13.5K limit! I think this is the highest initial limit I've ever received except from maybe AMEX. Can anyone provide a rational explanation for why it's better not to provide employment information? I'm going to try the same with Citi, but I expect similar results.

interesting..

I strongly suspect this is a coincidence, unless your income is surprisingly low for your credit profile.

I'm a student and have no job, and absolutely no credit. I applied for the citi diamond prefered rewards card (expecting not to get it since it says you have to make 12k/year min). I left the job part blank and got approved with 1k limit. Not much, but higher than the 500$ min limit.

Well, looks like the credit industry doesn't do anything rational.

Perhaps they might suspect that someone with good credit and no job is a student. Students supposedly get higher credit lines than working adults, the thought is that they are more likely to get into debt and then be bailed out by their parents or pay it off later when they get a job.

Not only they give higher CL if you leave Employment blank. This time, me and my friend applied for a Fleet card. I left employment blank and got a $3K CL. My friend put his work Info, and got a letter requesting proof.

i have always thought about the same thing...im a college student working part time at home depot, i have about 70k in credit(and no, i have never had a co-signer).i dont have any loans or anything, just credit debt due to 0% trasnfers(i have about 50k in the bank). any card that has a decent bl rate gets maxed. i have never missed a payment, always on time and always a little more then the minuium. the companys are out there to make money, and i think because i have good credit, companys want me to slip so they can profit from me. because i have never slipped before, i think i might be considered low risk but very profitable to companys because of all my debt. think about it. i show them i care about my credit, and dont want bad credit.


in your case, someone who doesnt work, still needs to spend money. i bet even more because they have nothing to do. now with no job they might not beable to pay it back in full, so thats how they make their money and want to extend as much credit as possiable to unemployed. most people dont want to be without a job, and companys know that.

That's very good info, thanks. I'm going to try to pull it off next time I apply for a Chase card

They think women spend more...same has always happened when wife and I apply same card same time.

SUCKISSTAPLES said: stay at home people shop more and spend more and need a bigger CL.

retired ppl on small fixed income get high CLs too

Welcome back SIS, where have you been???? when u were missing...........were u a lurker or used a different ID?? Eitherway good to see you back

The cynic in me thinks it's as someone mentioned before.
People with no job/source of income are more likely to rack up debt, so higher CL = higher debt= more money for CC company.

i usually get approved for $20-25k limits when i apply. r u saying if i leave employment blank, they will approve me for $40-50k limit?

The credit card company assumes that you don't want to disclose your income so they base the decision on the other determining factors in your application. These companies defy logic. I make $61K and got a $3K credit limit with Chase. My in-laws are both unemployed mentally disabled (clinically) people and they both got $7K limits on their credit cards. They ran up the cards and declared bankruptcy. I congratulated them on a job well done. I've never declared bankruptcy but have been late five times. I check out a credit simulator and determined that you're better off declaring bankruptcy than being late five times. Go figure!

They assume that your wife owns a small business.Been there ,done that..... no work history for the past 3 years ,applied for "citi rewards card" 10 days later their rep calls me ,asking if i might be interested in a "citi business rewards card"...

How might this compare to listing employment as Self-Employed? I'm now SE, but I don't really want to have to provide tons of proof of income and all that nonsense. However, I am definitely looking for new 0% BTs.

Another possibility, people with no jobs don't have a sudden decline in ability to pay when they lose their jobs.

Chase has been confusing to me. I got four Chase cards in Aug and Sept, #1 was a gas card, $4k. #2 was Flex Rewards, $5k. Did a little CLI and reallocation to $1k/$10k. Card #3, the mastercard with 5% CashBack for life, came in at only $2.5k, so I figured I had about all the credit they wanted to give me. Found out I could still get the 5% rewards Visa, applied for that and got $5k. All apps stated I was professional or accountant with HHI of 65k. All other CC issuers either denied me (thin file, no currently open accounts older than 3/06) or gave me $5k initial lines. I'll CLI my Chase lines as much as I can for a few months and then try an AOR in March if my scores are still OK. I owe $8900 on the 10k Chase, so I suspect that may have pulled my thin file under 700 FICO.