nimble

sorry if this is a repeat question......but just been talking to a neighbour whose wife is already in Oz and one of the biggest hurdles she has had is getting a credit rating.....without one she can't get credit and without credit she doesn't have a credit rating!! He said that they have had an Oz account for ages (he is australian)

We have just opened an account with HSBC both in England and Oz so that we can easily transfer monies and wondered if that will enable us to have a credit rating - can they call upon the UK credit rating especially if we bank with them here?

If not, ideas or advice on how to get a credit rating fairly quickly as I assume that we will need one to rent a property. We don't have employment lined up either but fortunately due to redundancy payments have money in the bank.

Thanks in advance........ Nimble

Centurion

As with starting off in any credit rating system, just apply for credit as you need it. In particular one of the easiest things to apply for is a bank credit card with your own bank for example. Really, there isn't a need to over think this issue and there isn't any particular difficulty that anyone has had in the past that I can recall on the forum.

kporte

It seems that no credit history is not considered bad. Centurion makes good points, I'd like to add that it is quite possible you will only initially get a small credit limit on a card.
No bad thing!!

spottydog

you don't need a credit rating to apply for a rental. In fact over here if you apply for credit to frequently then you can damage your rating even though you pay everything back as per the credit agreement.

From what I understand here credit files contain what you have applied for but nothing about whether you have paid it back.

You arrive here with a good rating, anything you apply for takes the rating down.

hoofie2002

When you arrive you don't have a credit rating - you don't exist yet. The first time you apply for credit of ANY kind, you will have a file created at that point.

All the file will ever contain is the date, amount of credit applied for and the institution initiating the search. [Most credit information here is supplied by Baycorp Advantage].

If you default on an agreement or miss payments that will be recorded also [if the lending institution tell them] - this will of course come back when you apply for credit somewhere else.

Your file DOES NOT contain a credit score or anything like that - each lending institution calculates their own score for every application.

So basically if you can afford it, the lack of not having a credit record in Australia shouldn't be a major hardship - the lenders are most interested in your status, income, assets, liabilities etc - the credit check is really just a check for a bad history.

p.s. this is based on my recollection on working on lending systems at a bank so it may not be 100% accurate

canadaeh

Actually, no one in Australia has a Credit Rating. In Australia you have a Credit Report – which is quite different to a Credit Rating, and you don’t actually get “rated” with a score on your file.

Your Credit Report just has everything you have applied for (weather you got it or not) and any defaults – all information stays on it for 5 years (sometimes longer depending on the listing).

You activate you Credit Report all you need to do is apply for Credit – like a mobile phone contract or credit card, you don’t actually have to take it – just apply for it and it will activate your Credit Report.

Rental leases, bank accounts and most utilities are NOT credit and are not on your Credit Report, nor even do a credit check.

E3only

Just one advice, don't apply for credit products in heaps. You will destroy your credit worth...

canadaeh

True. The general rule is, more than 3 credit applications (phones, loans, Cars etc) in a 6 month period is too much.

Most people make this mistake by applying for several credit cards at once (not because they want several credit cards, but just to see which ones they get offered and then choose). This then makes it harder to get more credit later on.

nimble

Thanks guys - we have atleast the card from HSBC so won't need to apply for a credit card, so it will be the usual ie phone, car etc

Nimble

hoofie2002

True - you will be declined automatically or else the application will be "referred" and you will be asked why there are so many applications.

hoofie2002

My bad - I talked about "rating" despite the fact the only rating you will ever get is the one generated by the bank etc when you apply for credit which is a one-off event and is not recorded on your credit file.

This link may be of use to people.