Salary sacrifice – impact on credit card approvals

[lunne]

Does anyone have experience with how salary sacrificing affects the ability to be approved for credit cards?

I'm planning to sacrifice 100% of my salary for Super for the next 4 months (I have a lot of catch-up concessional contributions to be done).

I've never had problems getting approved for the standard Black credit cards from the usual banks (+150k salary and +250k in the bank).

Will it now become a problem getting approved if I have $0 coming into my account? Or are the credit card institutions used to the salary sacrifice set-up?

Thanks

 

[Dr Ralph]

It's going to be a problem. In my experience they have little understanding of salary sacrifice. More recently they didn't even understand how my long service leave at half pay worked!

But remember that banks are usually happy to take payslips within the last 3 months. So:

1) Apply for your cards now whilst you have the substantiated income to show.
2) Use your older payips when you apply and are within your salary sacrifice period.

 

[turnipapple]

I recently applied for ANZ and they listed salary sacrifice as an example of an expense. That just doesn't sound right to me.

 

[lunne]

Thanks @Dr Ralph and @turnipapple!

Yikes, that's not what I was hoping to hear. I'll crunch the numbers to see whether it makes sense to revise my plans (e.g. do a 50% sacrifice and/or spread out the sacrifice to months later in the FY).

 

[Happy Dude]

I recently applied for ANZ and they listed salary sacrifice as an example of an expense. That just doesn't sound right to me.

I guess it's because it's pay that not in your pocket and now can't be used to service debt. So it's viewed the same as an expense to them.

I recall this being an issue for an ANZ a while ago but they called to clarify because my fortnightly pay deposits didn't add up to my annual gross income.

 

[lunne]

Actually, if this will be a problem for credit card approvals, would it then not make sense to do Personal super contributions (instead of salary sacrifice)?

Are there any real downsides to choosing Personal contributions?

From what I understand, the tax savings will be the same.

(Apologies in advance if we're getting into financial planning territory)

 

[Happy Dude]

@lunne there's a superannuation discussion thread here somewhere.

 

[lunne]

Thanks @Happy Dude, searched the thread but couldn't really find what I was looking for.

Will head to good old Google instead to figure out if Personal contributions have any downside vs Salary sacrifice.

 

[turnipapple]

Actually, if this will be a problem for credit card approvals, would it then not make sense to do Personal super contributions (instead of salary sacrifice)?

Are there any real downsides to choosing Personal contributions?

From what I understand, the tax savings will be the same.

(Apologies in advance if we're getting into financial planning territory)

Personally I do salary sacrifice so I can get the tax savings earlier, instead of waiting until May next FY when I do my tax return.

One perk of doing personal super contributions is the ability to gain points on them through Sniip.

Superannuation contributions by credit card

Is anyone doing Beem BPAY using credit card for superannuation contributions? It's a late(ish) night brain thought but Hostplus & Australian Super websites say they accept BPAY. If it works for ATO payments, it could also work for super?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[burmans]

I recently applied for ANZ and they listed salary sacrifice as an example of an expense. That just doesn't sound right to me.

It’s money you can’t use to repay your CC which is basically their main criteria.