Nurse-Tom

Hi there fokls
We're all set and ready to leave for Oz. Thus far it's all gone very smoothly () we were wondering though if there is any way we can transfer our credit rating to Oz so that we can secure a mortgage relatively quickly and with favourable rates? We are extremely lucky in that we have around $220k to bring with us and I'd like to think that this in iteself will go someway to convincing a lender that w're a pretty safe bet. A friend in Oz suggested that if we opened an account with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia we could transfer our credit history. Is this right, is it possible, should we just forgort it?!?!?

nickyjohnt

You will arrive here with no Credit history, for some this is great others not so, With $220k don't worry and enjoy it

John

comet555

No you can't.

No need to worry though. When we arrived in 2007 we brought just about the same amount. We bought a house 3 months after we arrived, and with my husbands job herre plus the large down payment it wasn't a problem.

Mind you, this was before the big financial crisis, but I think the same would stil apply. You have a large down payment so I don't think you'd have much difficulty with a mortgage.

fish.01

Someone posted that you can transfer your Amex UK card and history to Oz by contacting American Express in the UK.

lonndongeek

Amex have a service called global transfer - see here.

When I used it back in August 2007, they asked for proof of address - I ended up using a letter from a credit union as that's all that I had at the time. You have to have held a consumer card for at least 3 months with Amex in the UK before they'll let you use the service. Otherwise, it was useful to have some 'local plastic' in my wallet not long after arrival.

Cheers

Steve

Wol

IIRC the two countries use different methodology - the UK keeps *good* credit ratings, Oz uses *bad* ones.

shirlw

No credit history required you start from scratch but not a problem....you can easily get a mortgage no questions if you have a 20% deposit! We got a mortgage in 2007 when we were on a tourist visabought a house and have rented it out ever since(still stuck in South Africa)........Good luck

Centurion

Just to add, with that ensure that they apply a conversion on reward points.

When I transferred my Amex my rewards were transferred at x2.5 the balance on my UK card.

Worth it, as Australian Amex have a decent frequent flier partnership program.