Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Why do credit cards require a minimum annual household income?
While you're asking about a particular bank, I'll give my opinion of this in general.  I think a $12,000 household income is pretty low to be given credit. The risk to the bank is certainly higher than if the income were at that $35,000 level. They can use this to differentiate what they offer for perks, and if they ever collateralize the debt of these cards, it's a clearly defined demographic.