Cary And Richard

I have just moved to the US and married. Does anyone know which American
Financial Institutions are willing to use my UK Credit Reports / scores etc
so that I can obtain good credit in the States ?

Does anyone have experience of this ?

Thanks in advance.

Richard.

Sj

I would guess that some of the larger instutions such as Citibank and
Chase would use your previous credit because they have offices over
there.

Also, I would check with Barclays and several other UK banks that have
offices in the US or any of the other large Multi-National banks
(HSBC, ING,...) that have a presence in the UK.

You can open an account with them in the US and do pretty much
everything online. That's what I did with Chase and HSBC when I moved
my business back from Brazil.

I know that Equifax (one of the big three reporting bureaus with
TransUnion and Experian being the other two) has a presence in the UK.
I wonder if they would have something that would transfer your credit
history.

Most financial institutions here use something called a FICO Credit
score. (FICO stands for Fair Isaac COmpany--the company that
developed the formula). They will be looking for a score of 650 or
better to be considered "good". Some institutions will call it a
BEACON score too. If you search around on the net you will find out
the formula and what it takes to get a decent score fairly
quickly--pretty easy to do in about 6 months. Finally, most
institutions will poll all three bureaus and either average the scores
or choose the middle score and will base your interest rate on that
figure.

Hope this helps!

SJ



On Wed, 6 Aug 2003 22:45:25 -0500, "Cary and Richard"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >I have just moved to the US and married. Does anyone know which American
    >Financial Institutions are willing to use my UK Credit Reports / scores etc
    >so that I can obtain good credit in the States ?
    >Does anyone have experience of this ?
    >Thanks in advance.
    >Richard.

krikkrak

hey richard,

from my understanding of the credit report. once you arrive in this country it's all reset you have to start it all over again.
you have to build one from scratch.
For some people with previous bad credit in their homeland it might be good, and for other people like yourself then it may take a while until you reach an excellent one.
If i were you i wouldn't worry much about it cos with a clean credit record, the only thing you can do i think will be to take out a home mortgage.

i hope i have anser your question well..

cheers

CharlieS

I spent 5 years living in the US, leaving the Uk with impecible credit history, yet I had to start from scract once in the US. They were only interested in what I had going on over there.
It was pretty easy to put together good credit though. I got a checking account and kept on top of it, a credit card with a deposit and paid the balance in full each month, and got a save and loan account with a credit union. Inside a year i was getting offers for 0% financing etc. just be careful and smart and you'll get a good rating in no time.

Peter Newton

Sorry, this isn't the case - Citibank wouldn't transfer my credit history.

You basically have to start from scratch all over again.

There was a thread a few weeks ago - try searching for it...

katesuiter1

I did the same thing when I got here. I opened a chacking account, and a couple of months after, I applied for a secured credit card, which Corey and I are keeping on top of. We pay far more than our minimum payment each month, and usually keep it topped up as much as we can.

I tried for a couple of store cards, the most recent being a couple of weeks ago, but they all said I have insufficient credit history. Can you recommend a good credit union where we're likely to get a small personal loan? We can't afford to finance a vehicle, otherwise we'd go that route, as a lot of people have recommended this. Thanks for any input.
Kate. xxxx

CharlieS

I went to my local credit union in Northern California. Is what they allowed me to do is deposit $1000 into an account which was locked. They then loaned me $750 dollars, suing the locked savings account as collateral. I did have to pay a small interest charge, but that was a small price to pay for a positive credit rating. This seems like a backward thing to do but the idea behind it is that each month I made the loan payment, without having to rely on the locked account, and so each month I was getting positive repayment ratings sent to the 3 credit report companies. It was an exercise done purely with the idea of gaining a positive credit rating, and a credit history. The person that arranged it for me actually said that this was not an unusual request and numerous people have done it with them in the past.

katesuiter1

Wow!!!! $1000? Oh well, there goes that idea! Thanks for the info, Charlie, and we might consider doing that in the future.
Kate. xxxxx

Pulaski

As eveyone else has said here, basically nobody in the US is in the least bit interested in your UK credit history.

Having said that if you have a British Amex card it is possible to lean on Amex to issue a US card (I did it in 2002), and I have heard that MBNA and Bank One (credit cards) might be willing to do the same if you had one of their credit cards in the UK. In all these cases though you have to be prepared to argue your case - it isn't automatic.

CharlieS

kate, They didn't specify the $1000, I voluntarily put that amount into the account. I'm sure they would allow a smaller amount. Find out their minimum personal loan amount and go from there.

As Pulaski wrote also, certain credit card companies operating in both the UK and USA will transfer your account. It doesnt mean they will transfer your history, but at least you will have a credit account and be able to start getting a credit history.

katesuiter1

Thank you! I'll look into it and see what we can do. I didn't have a glowing credit history in the UK, and I never had any cards, so I'm kind of glad I have to start again and have no credit, rather than bad. Thanks again!!!
Kate. xxxxxx