minikin

So, I'm one of the largish percentage of the US population who carries a rather high amount of credit card debt. Flar makes a healthy income as a consultant, we tend to pay our bills *practically* on time (never more than a week or two late), and like to spend money. Credit card companies love us. Me, I'm unemployed -- lovingly referred to as a homemaker.

So.

I got this invitation for a credit in the mail. The terms were attractive for transferring the balance from a card whose policies I particularly dislike, and seemed a reasonable way to slightly reduce the time to pay off that particular chunk of our debt. Invitation was in my name.

So I call to find out if they've got a constant-amount direct-debit payment plan, to avoid those nasty late fees helped build this particular balance. No help there, the number takes me to an automated applications number, with no code for getting a human.

So I figure what-the-heck, I'll apply and get the rest of the information later.

Instead I get the dreaded "need more information" letter. Did I mention that Flar is self-employed? Seems they want proof of the income that I stated. I called today, to verify that what they really want is proof of Flar's income, which would have to be a schedule C from our 2001 1040, which we haven't generated yet.

But somehow, in the midst of the conversation, the guy figure out that if he corrects my employment code (I probably chose unemployed, or something) to "Homemaker" and then lists our home number as the business number, then it won't call for any proof of income.

So I'm now wondering how much "Other household income" a Homemaker can claim without proof of said income, and what kind of ratio they apply to that income to determine a level of credit for the card. I guess I'll find out the latter in a week or two.