snotmaster1

Hi

Does anyone know of a bank that offers, or a method that lets you effectively transfer or gain a credit rating for use in the USA, for a UK citizen who is moving?

Pulaski

Generally speaking it's not possible. Thank the European Onion laws on privacy of personal data, and the resulting Data Protection Act in the UK.

If you have an American Express card in the UK you can persuade them to issue a US card on the back of your relationship with them in the UK.

I have often wondered if Capital One or MBNA (Bank of America) might do the same thing for holders of their cards in the UK, but I have never heard of anyone succeeding, or even trying.

If you need a car and can afford (the payments on) a new car, speak to Internationally Autosource before you leave the UK and they will finance a car on the same terms as a US citizen/ resident even though you have no US credit history.

ubernathan

HSBC Premier will issue you a US CC on the back of your UK rating with them. Alternatively you could get a secured credit card with a local bank.

Pulaski

If HSBC is all you have to work with, then so be it, but (i) they have a negligible presence outside of New York, (ii) they have a poor reputation for customer service (which I concur with as I was a customer when I lived in New York), and (iii) they are "on the back foot" in the US after paying a massive fine for breaches of US banking regulations.

Bob

MBNA has been dead for years since they were bought, BoA don't do a transfer.

Pulaski

The MBNA brand is still used in the UK under ownership of Bank of America, but in the US MBNA was rebranded/ merged with Bank of America, so they are under common ownership.

Do you know for a fact that BoA won't issue a card to a British MBNA card holder, or are you just guessing, based on MBNA being "dead for years"?

Bob

Based on a fact that they are separate business entities with no tie except for a historic name.

They didn't even do it when MBNA existed in the US for UK customers.

Amie06

If married to a USC try piggy backing on their CC's as authorized 2nd card holder. I have just done that with 2 of the wife's cards. Just wondering how long to wait b4 applying in my own name for CC??

Pulaski

That's not true, as I explained above. MBNA in the UK belongs to Bank of America, which also owns the rebranded legacy MBNA business in the US. OK, so the likelihood is that they don't, but given that you are citing old MBNA policy and it is possible that BoA has changed the policy, you don't know for sure.

Bob

It is still a separate business entity. Might only be on paper, but it was a separate business acquisition and remains to be run as separate entities.

The policy hasn't changed.

kodokan

Still, it's worth it just to accelerate the credit from the start. After just one year with only our HSBC credit card, we had scores around 700 and qualified easily for a mortgage at a great rate.

You don't have to actually then use them for day to day banking. We opened the HSBC account a month or so before coming here, with cards and check books posted overseas to us, then got a Chase account a week or two after arriving to have a convenient local branch for cashiers checks, stupid newbie bill paying questions, etc. Hubby's salary was split 50/50, so they were both happy they were being used and not dormant.

Pulaski

Agreed absolutely, which is why I said " .... if HSBC is all you have to work with, then so be it, .....".

kodokan

Their customer service is brilliant if you're a Premier customer. We're not any longer having spent all our money on a house, but for a while we had our own 'on first names terms with' Personal Banker that we could phone at any time.

Eggx

Citi may also offer something.

cheradenine

Think I am going to have to beg the misses to try this route as I got my 2nd credit card decline letter yesterday.

I am so frustrated with this!
A few weeks ago I went to a bank of America and talked to this woman about setting me up with a credit card. The way myself and my misses understood things, was that I was signing up for the most rubbish student credit card there is.
Fair enough I thought, can't do much about it with zero credit history.
But then when the card came through it was just a cash machine/ATM card, it's not even a visa!
There must have been a mistake somewhere I think.

I knew moving to the states would be tough but I didn't realise that the most simplest of things would be so unattainable.