Pulaski

OK thx, I'll remember that for future reference.

Uncle_Bob

depends on how fancy you want to go with the car and a house.
I rented for a year to build up credit history. I had to wait 3 months to rent, I was living in a hotel for 3 months, but my company paid for it along with $60 a day food and drink allowance

Renting allows you to look around and see where you would like to buy or if you just want to get up and return to the UK at that point.

Be careful buying in Phoenix as the housing market has been on a huge rollercoaster ride over the past 10 years or so. There are plenty of houses being let go by investors who have being renting them for the last 10 years but have never spend a penny on updates etc. The houses here are of a good size but the cost of maintaining them is higher too. I put in a new a/c system, cheapest quote i got was $15k. My roof need replacing soon, $25k to replace, its got 2 years left before i get real problems.

Another option as the houses are quite big i know people who house share, 4 or 5 people per house? I wouldn't do that but people do it, gets them all on the property ladder.

Uncle_Bob

I understand that the credit history does not transfer. Isn't his best option to look for lenders in the UK that have a presence in the USA, then ask them to transfer the UK account to American, at that point it starts reporting history in America before he gets there?

hungryhorace

I don't believe so. The reporting history only begins when the account is opened in the United States. So using HSBC etc, won't have any impact.

Pulaski

But I think what UncleBob is suggesting is to transfer the a/c to the US, before the account holder arrives in the US. The problem is that without a SSN, even if you could persuade the bank to transfer the account (which I sincerely doubt any bank would do), the activity wouldn't be reported to the credit agencies. Even if you could do this, you'd have to send a USD transfer every month to make the loan payment, which could be a relatively expensive and complex issue itself.

FinnDiego

Yep, that's my understanding too, should have been a bit more specific above. What you end up with is say a 12-month credit history but with an account that's been open for five years. Not quite sure what that means...

Even with no additional credit history transfer just having that card is very useful for building one, so the transfer if worth doing in my opinion.

andrewlohnes

Well, for me, I'm hoping to open a bank account with Chase and get a credit card with them in November. I'm just going to explain my situation and hope that I can, I will use my dad's address as my permanent address (which it will be for a while after I move) and I already have a SSN.

I'm going to open it with $1000-2000 and then transfer about $600 a month into it and use the credit card on amazon.com and pay it off in full every month.

Fingers crossed they will after I have explained my situation.

MarylandNed

Related article:

New arrivals to U.S. need to rebuild credit history

Pulaski

The less you have to explain, the fewer alarm bells you will ring.

andrewlohnes

I was thinking of just telling them I have just moved to my dad's permanently when I go in November, but then that would be fraud I'm guessing. Not that they'd ever find out?

Michael

If your dad lives in the US, has good credit, and is willing to put you on one of his credit cards as an authorized user (he doesn't even have to give you the credit card), since you have a social security number, all of his credit history for that card including his past history should become part of your history at the credit bureaus.

In the past, that was the way credit repair agencies repaired a person's credit but now the credit bureaus can determine if someone is trying to do that. The credit repair agencies would put hundreds of customers as authorized users on a credit card with perfect credit history. I believe now the credit bureaus will reject authorized users getting the history if more than a few are on a credit card.

I put my sons as authorized users on my credit card and when they applied for credit, they didn't have any problems.

andrewlohnes

That is a fantastic piece of advice! I'll have to look into that 1.

Thanks!

MarylandNed

That same advice is included in the link I posted earlier:
New arrivals to U.S. need to rebuild credit history

Local friends and family: People you know and trust -- and likewise know and trust you -- might allow you to piggyback on their credit card accounts as an authorized user. Becoming an authorized user means that you get the benefit of the primary cardholder's solid credit history. But choose that person wisely, since any mistakes made by the primary cardholder can also hurt your credit.

andrewlohnes

Completely missed that link, sorry Ned.

laidback4

I had an Amex card in the UK, then moved to Canada, then recently the US. On each move I went to the page on the Amex site called moving abroad and completed the details. I quickly received a new card without any fuss. I've been in the US for three months now - I received my new Amex after three weeks, and successfully applied for a MasterCard with Citi last week, presumably off the strength of that.