Few tric to build credit....

[trailmix 77]

It is the last thing I wanna do, beleive me.

I was not about luck for me, But being with RBC made everything very simple.

I look through many different possible way and to join a credit union was the second option...though it would'have taken longuer to establish credit It was an alternative to consider.

All this post is, is to give options to people in my situation, share what I had to go through to get to this. I no way I mean to give hope to the ones struggling to get to that point.

Please be advise that a REQUEST FOR A CC that is refused, automaticaly start your CREDIT. As it will be reported to all 3 agencies as a no hit, but will give you an actual file to look at.

I'm sorry if I missled anyone with this post as it was not my intentions.

Sorry.

Laurent

I'm going to have to differ here

With the RBC, in spite of our stellar credit in Canada - they wouldn't issue us a U.S. Visa card - they said we would have to do it here - well of course 'here' we were not employed (yet), so that wasn't an option. I would also like to say that my experience so far is that they make everything as 'unsimple' as they possibly can.

It all depends on who you talk to and what they decide is applicable on the day.

If you plan ahead a bit, establishing credit in the U.S. is easy. 1. Get the American Express Canada card as soon as you are even thinking about moving to the U.S. (so you can switch to a U.S. card via their global transfer) 2. Get a store credit card. JCPenny is about the easiest from what I have heard (and that was my experience).

Within a year, based on those 2 things - we both have excellent credit scores.

That said - as Treble mentioned - banks are not handing out bunches of money here. We have excellent credit in Canada, we have excellent credit here - however - ING Direct would not offer us a mortgage simply because we did not have '2 credit streams over a 24 month period'.

The RBC will give us a mortgage, which is good, but it is based on our Canadian credit really.

Edited May 28, 2009 by trailmix

[Flames9_RN 358]

With regards to piggy backing on ur USA spouses credit card and getting credit that way--According to CNBC chick Suzy Orman, that is supposedly going out the window. Thats what we did when I moved here in late Dec 2004, that and put me on the utilities and I got a CC and have excellent credit, yet have never worked here.

[thetreble 19]

With regards to piggy backing on ur USA spouses credit card and getting credit that way--According to CNBC chick Suzy Orman, that is supposedly going out the window. Thats what we did when I moved here in late Dec 2004, that and put me on the utilities and I got a CC and have excellent credit, yet have never worked here.

Yeah see, that's a shame that they probably will stop doing that. That is the ONLY way I would have been considered when applying for a mortgage with Jared. They literally came back to me and said, "You don't have enough credit. Add yourself to all of your husband's credit cards and wait a few months".

Which is exactly what we did and I was able (eventually) to secure the mortgage in both our names.

If they stop this process, so many people will be SOL. Shame. I understand why they have to do it but..shame.

[Flames9_RN 358]

One name doesnt have to go on the mortgage--I wasnt on the mortgage at all---just on my wifes credit--but Iwas put on the deed, lol so she can't kick me out,lol

[thetreble 19]

One name doesnt have to go on the mortgage--I wasnt on the mortgage at all---just on my wifes credit--but Iwas put on the deed, lol so she can't kick me out,lol

Well I wanted to be on the mortgage. I wanted to establish credit for myself. I want to live the American dream damnit!

[Udella&Wiz 325]

One name doesnt have to go on the mortgage--I wasnt on the mortgage at all---just on my wifes credit--but Iwas put on the deed, lol so she can't kick me out,lol

Ours is like this as well - since my non-credit history harmed the rate we could get... loan is in teh hubster's name and the house deed in both of ours

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Maybe i'm delusional but I'm not worried about this at all. I have very limited credit in Canada... I have 1 credit card through the bank, and a cell phone bill, that's about it. I've only had my credit card for about 2 years as well... My fiance has a fairly good credit score, so I'm thinking as long as he has reliable credit and a decent job I have nothing to worry about. I'll be added to his credit card and If it doesn't get me credit then it doesn't get me credit. If we want to buy a house then it will be in his name, I don't mind. I guess if I was older and already had very established credit It would be more of a concern, but as a 21 year old student... how many of us actually have a strong credit rating? Not many that I know of.

[trailmix 77]

Maybe i'm delusional but I'm not worried about this at all. I have very limited credit in Canada... I have 1 credit card through the bank, and a cell phone bill, that's about it. I've only had my credit card for about 2 years as well... My fiance has a fairly good credit score, so I'm thinking as long as he has reliable credit and a decent job I have nothing to worry about. I'll be added to his credit card and If it doesn't get me credit then it doesn't get me credit. If we want to buy a house then it will be in his name, I don't mind. I guess if I was older and already had very established credit It would be more of a concern, but as a 21 year old student... how many of us actually have a strong credit rating? Not many that I know of.

Not delusional at all Huggle, you are understanding it completely correctly I think.

I don't work here - this mortgage that I am speaking of is completely based on my Husband's job/credit, they could care less what my credit score is.

It is not really important other than if you want a mortgage with your income included (ie: if he qualifies for a 150 thousand dollar mortgage and you want to buy a house where you want say a 200 thousand dollar mortgage - then your credit score and income is, of course, important) or want to finance a vehicle with that same criteria etc.

Credit cards just to have them - well, we all know what they are

Edited May 30, 2009 by trailmix

[Texanadian 10]

I used my old job in Canada when I applied for a US credit card.

You don't need to worry about getting a huge credit card or multiple cards in the US. With my simple 1 US credit card and a $500 limit on it, I managed to get a 720 FICO score before I even got a job. I'd just put $100 on the card, let it report to the credit bureaus at the end of the month and then pay it in full. Simple really. Just put the cable/internet bill on there and then put it away. It seems building a good credit rating when you have no bad history allows your score to jump rather quickly.

The trick of course is getting a US credit card. Some have more troubles than others.

If I were to do it again, I'd probably get an AMEX card in Canada. But I never knew about that then.

[SonoranSongbird 3]

Caveat about RBC cards---One of the things my husband tried to do to establish credit in the US was get an RBC card. You do not have to have an account with them--if you call RBC's US credit division, they can check your Canadian credit history. The problem he had was his credit in Canada was TOO good. They turned him down because he had already paid off his mortgage and car loan and they said he did not have enough recent lines of credit open. #######?

What he finally did was get a secured card. Open an account to secure it, and you qualify for whatever amount you put in and use it just like any other card. Then he got an unsecured Capitol One card (same experience as JillA described). He just got it a month ago, but they say they will automatically increase his credit limit after 3 months, and then I think yearly or something. He does have a pretty low limit on it, but it wasn't the lowest limit available.

[J&K 0]

Caveat about RBC cards---One of the things my husband tried to do to establish credit in the US was get an RBC card. You do not have to have an account with them--if you call RBC's US credit division, they can check your Canadian credit history. The problem he had was his credit in Canada was TOO good. They turned him down because he had already paid off his mortgage and car loan and they said he did not have enough recent lines of credit open. #######?

What he finally did was get a secured card. Open an account to secure it, and you qualify for whatever amount you put in and use it just like any other card. Then he got an unsecured Capitol One card (same experience as JillA described). He just got it a month ago, but they say they will automatically increase his credit limit after 3 months, and then I think yearly or something. He does have a pretty low limit on it, but it wasn't the lowest limit available.

Capital One is a pretty good starter card for those who have already established credit, but don't have a lot of it. Capital One is very good in doing the 3 month increase, probably from $500 to $1000. But thing to know is that you might be stuck with a card that will never go higher than $1000.

Other bad thing about Capital One is that they pull all 3 credit reports, unlike most companies who only pull one.

[thetreble 19]

Maybe i'm delusional but I'm not worried about this at all. I have very limited credit in Canada... I have 1 credit card through the bank, and a cell phone bill, that's about it. I've only had my credit card for about 2 years as well... My fiance has a fairly good credit score, so I'm thinking as long as he has reliable credit and a decent job I have nothing to worry about. I'll be added to his credit card and If it doesn't get me credit then it doesn't get me credit. If we want to buy a house then it will be in his name, I don't mind. I guess if I was older and already had very established credit It would be more of a concern, but as a 21 year old student... how many of us actually have a strong credit rating? Not many that I know of.

I beg to differ, and maybe it's because you are 21. (not that I'm being prejudice against your age)

You don't have to be worried about it, but you just have to be aware of it.

I wanted to be on the mortgage, because my we needed my income in order to be approved for the loan we wanted. (as trailmix said) In my state where median home prices are through the roof, unless you want to live in a bad neighbourhood where you are going to get gunned down, you've gotta make money. My husband didn't qualify on his own for what we needed so unless your future husband makes a good sum of money, you may have trouble getting what you want.

Again, it's not something to worry about, it's just something to be aware of. We have awesome credit (in the high 700s) and I was denied when we bought a brand new mattress and box spring from Sleepy's to do financing because it was 0% at the time. Even though our credit scores were both high, they still denied us. This was back in December.

It's not easy here at the moment to do anything that involves getting money to make big purchases.

[k34 0]

I was at my local Chase branch yesterday looking into getting a Visa. My husband has a couple of accounts there, to which he has added my name. I asked a lot of questions and was told that if they simply add me to his Visa card, that wont report to my credit at all. They don't do credit cards with a co-signer (not sure if this is new or has always been this way). He advised me that because of my situation and the fact that I am named on savings and checking accounts with them, after I get the inevitable rejection, he can submit it for reconsideration, meaning an actual person will look at the big picture so to speak. He thought that upon reconsideration there was a pretty good chance I would be approved for a low limit card to start me out. I thought this might be useful to mention, since another branch that I was at previously didn't seem to know anything about that process, so other people's experiences with Chase will obviously vary.

Of course the usefulness of this information really depends on whether I eventually get a card or not, I guess

Btw, sorry to have kinda checked out of here as soon as I moved... I have spent almost 100% of my time every day looking for a job (to no avail, yet). I decided that I needed a day off today :-)

edit: yes, based on my timeline it wouldn't be expected that I would be looking for work yet, but I actually got the EA stamp at the Detroit tunnel when I crossed

Edited June 3, 2009 by k34

[Tankgurl38 0]

Isn't that first EAD stamp only temporary and expires after the 90 days your K1 is valid for getting married?

[k34 0]

Isn't that first EAD stamp only temporary and expires after the 90 days your K1 is valid for getting married?

Yes... was hoping to get a job pretty early and then be able to hang onto it because I should have had my EAD card within the 90 days. I say should have had, because without being able to find a job right away, I was also then not able to apply for my AOS/EAD right away... had to wait until I got my severance from my job in Canada. It looks like I wont have to worry about what to do about my job when the I-94 expires anyway though since I haven't even had so much as an interview yet