Cuddly Bear

Want to apply for a credit card so we can get a credit rating, it asks for our previous address cause we've only lived here 4 months, do they do a credit search on back home cause to be honest we didn't really have a good credit history and i didn't want them checking it.Or do they just simply need an address?
Dont know what to do!

ianandhelena

look at this thread:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...t=credit+check

Cuddly Bear

Thanks i will

adriang

I got one from Virgin, it took a bit of effort, because I did not have any credit history, but got one without any international checks.

Paul&Nic

We recently got a credit card through Comm Bank even tho the bloke in our branch said we had NO CHANCE!!

Like you we wanted to start off our credit rating, but also needed one to use online as not everyone accepts Eftpos ...

Both myself and partner are studying over here so have no income just savings in the bank but gave it a go and as I say they actually gave us one!

My previous address in the UK wasn't contacted at all and it took 10 days for the card to arrive.

Small limit of $1000, but that's a start! ...

Pollyana

You don't get a credit rating here in the same way that you do in the UK. Also, if/when you get a mortgage, they actually pemalose you for having credit cards with high limits - not the amount you have on the card at the time, but the potential possible that you COULD have.
When we went for a car loan, they wouldn't give it to us until the Bloke reduced his limit to something daft like $500. Once we had the loan we got it put back up.....

lee/jane

Hi

If you go for a Debit Visa Card it is easier. It has the same benefit as a credit card, but you are using your own money. We was going to try and avoid visa cards out here, but sometimes you just need one when you are buying things over the phone.

If you go to the Heritage Building Society and open a account, tell them why you want it and they will advise, but I think we had to have an amount ( I cant remember what) in the account for 1month, then we could apply. I think we got them a week later.

If you want a mortage, get it first, as this will effect the amount they will give you.

Jane

Paul&Nic

That's interesting, and I guess a good thing as we don't plan to be raising it.

Tiggs+Graz

Actually financial institutions in the uk are starting to do this as well. When we applied for our last loan (less than six months ago) we were told by one bank that as we had high credit limits on our cards (even though the balances were low) it would still count against us.
We just went through our cards and cancelled the ones we were not using anyway and reduced the limits on the others (we were never going to use the high limits anyway)

Tiggs