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I’m sure everyone reading this lies. From reassuring a frazzled friend that she looks good in an outfit that isn’t especially flattering, to telling your husband you spent hours in the kitchen preparing the dinner that you in fact picked up from the take out place down the block, to assuring your child that the family dog is on an extended vacation with his doggie pals, instead of being buried in the back garden. Lies both big and small are prevalent in most of our daily lives.
While sometimes telling a lie can be harmless and arguably the best course of action to take, there are some situations where a lie should never be told under any circumstances, for example when you are applying for a credit card.
As Kim McGrigg, the manager of community and media relations for Money Management International, said to foxbusiness.com, "Lying on a credit application purposefully is fraud. It may not be prosecuted aggressively, but the potential is too great for people to risk being caught."
Credit card companies make a decision on whether or not to extend you a line of credit based upon a number of different factors, one of which is your annual income. While it may be tempting to exaggerate how much you earn in order to get a higher limit on your credit card, the worst case scenario is that it could lead to having criminal charges filed against you and the possibility of serving time in prison.
Before you succumb to the temptation of sprinkling a couple of extra zeros around on your credit card applications, stop and consider why you are feeling compelled to fib in the first place.
"If you are lying on a credit card application, you are probably applying for credit you can't afford," McGrigg shared with foxbusiness.com. "You are setting yourself up for failure. You are not only committing fraud, but you are taking on risk you really can't afford to take on."
Even if you think you could use the higher credit limit, especially if you and your family are feeling a bit financially strapped, really think about whether or not you can afford to pay your credit card bill—ON TIME. As soon as your payments start lagging, or if you even outright miss one or two of them, your credit card issuer will take notice. If things escalate to the point of your needing to file bankruptcy down the line, and it also becomes apparent that you lied while filling out your initial application for credit, you are vulnerable to prosecution.
And it’s not just your income that you need to be forthright about—it is also important to be honest about your marital status. That means if you are about to be divorced or if you are currently divorced, say so.
As David Jones, president of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies, told foxbusiness.com, "If you want to say there are various categories of lies, well, the law says a lie is a lie is a lie.”
Even if your bank decides not to take any legal action against you, it could punish you for lying on your application in other ways. It can increase your interest rate or terminate your line of credit altogether, and you will have absolutely no recourse.
"If you falsify your credit application, there is very little you could do," Jones said to foxbusiness.com.
This isn't even original or funny.
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