Contractor Credit Card

Hi folks. Working as a contractor for a good few months now but I only recently got my personal tax sorted out by the revenue and as a result I've not set myself up with a salary yet. Not a problem for me except when I went to apply for a credit card with AIB (my personal bank for several years) I got rejected because I didn't have a regular income, despite having a savings account with them already.

Just wondering if anyone else has ever been in a similar position and what they would recommend? I was looking at TSB's ICE and the NIB mastercard but I'm afraid I'll get rejected again if I need to show payslips that I don't have. Is there anything else I could show them instead (e.g. business bank a/c statements maybe?).

NIB's Mastercard comes as part of their current account package. They do have a standalone Visa card however.

To be honest, if you've found that AIB weren't willing to take you on in this circumstance, another bank may not take you either. You could try MBNA who are sometimes more flexible in who they accept - but nothing is guaranteed: moreso in your circumstance.

No card issuer will offer you a credit card without a regular income.

Blackberry said:

No card issuer will offer you a credit card without a regular income.

Click to expand...

That's not strictly true IME. However.....

Any business "credit cards" that I've come across are, in effect, debit cards - the bank expects to see the account balance cleared every month.

You might consider setting up an account with a bank that offers a Visa or Mastercard debit card account instead? Ulster Bank are currently replacing their Laser card with a Visa debit card, as are some of the other retail banks.

There are a number of threads running on AAM on this topic.