After reading this thread Bank of America problem, Anyone else had to deal with this BS? I was struck by the thought that maybe a credit union would be better than a bank.

Does anyone here use a credit union (CU) as their banking resource? and if so, how does the CU deal with foreign spouses?

I love my credit union, but my fiancée is not here yet. They said all they need is a SS# and her passport and she will be joint with me.

Just because it is a CU does not mean they will understand all the rules and regulations either. My bank had absolutely no issues with my wife whatsoever....

US bank had no issues with me (the Canadian) asked for my SSN and took a copy of the visa stamp in my passport

I have been using a Credit union for years (ESL) and they gladly and easily added my wife to my account, all they wanted was her SSN.

I also have HSBC and they were a bit more picky, they wanted a copy of her birth cert for her to be added to my account there.

The CU my wife belonged to wouldn't put me on a checking account until I was here and had a SSN. On the other hand Wells Fargo gave us a checking account while we still lived in England.

The CU has better rates on savings accounts than Wells Fargo but the Wells Fargo checking account is better. Also we find the staff in Wells Fargo much friendlier and helpful than the staff in the CU. Get the impression with the CU that they are doing us a favor letting us deposit our money there. We only put up with them because their saving rate is better.

Also Wells Fargo has more and easier to get to ATMs so we can withdraw cash without being charged if we are away from home.

I have banked at both, and I have been much happier with my credit union...I'm not sure how they will deal with Darren being added to my account, though...just one of the myriad of issues which will need to be investigated before his interview...

I just checked my credit report and apparently, my 3 credit unions do not help build credit at all. Any inputs? I never really cared before, but I'd like to know other people's experiences for my immigrant wife.

Thank you.

Bank accounts don't build credit. You will have to put your wife on one of your credit cards or check around creditboards.com for issuers that look the other way for people for poor or no credit history.

My husband signed up with my credit union and opened his own account with no real problem. However, they refuse to spell his last name correctly.

You need a credit card to build credit, not an account at a credit union.

Sorry about that, I wasn't thinking clearly.

I got my credit report this week, and I see that there is no report of payments that I made for the credit card with the CU. I never had a credit card with a CU before. Is it because the cc account is only 2 months old? But it shows current payments I made for all other institutions.

This isn't a credit card attached to your debit card, correct? If not, it may take another billing cycle for it to report. You also said you only pulled one report, right? It may already be reporting to the other two bureaus. But seriously, creditboards.com is a great resource. I encourage you to ask them the things you are asking us.

Yes, thanks!

We opened a joint checking account with Regions two months after I arrived here. Had absolutely no problems. They didn't even ask if I had a SSN yet. They just needed to see my passport and a copy of our marriage certificate. Hubby was already a customer with Regions for 5 years by then, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Last Nov we switched all our banking functions to the Firefighters Credit Union. Hubby is a volunteer fire fighter. We love the credit union so much that we're going to close our Regions account next week.