Credit application: personal or household income?

It should be fine. When you are married, you hold property, including debt, jointly. You may want to be careful about that. If you run up debts you can’t pay, do you really want your spouse to be on the hook for it? I’m not sure what you have to do to keep separate finances, but you actually have to take specific action to separate things.

Bottom line, you are not doing anything wrong by stating household income since you are married and the law assumes your finances are entangled.

@wundayatta Ok, great, thank you. And I appreciate the advice. We are very responsible with credit. The only debt we have is our mortgage and a pesky hospital bill we’re paying off.

Don’t worry about it. I think if the card is only in your name possibly it should have been your individual income, but many times things like this are based on household income, so it is reasonable to answer household. They care about your credit number more than anything, if they gave you the card you’re fine. I don’t remember if I have answered our or my incomeon credit card apps, but I do know sometimes they send us very high credit lines, I just closed a card that gave us something like $15k off the bat. I don’t think my income mattered at all, but I am not sure how they evaluate it. The amount of money we make is not on the credit report, but the credit history is, and how much open credit you have is a big factor, and that you pay on time. Credit cards are not the same as home loans, where you have to provide proof of your income.

Not that it is ok to lie, I encourage you to be completely honest on forms like this, only that you did honestly fill the form to the best of your understanding and knowledge, so I think you have nothing to worry about.