mickey79

Hi,

I am from India and i got married to my wife ( an American) in November 2003. I came to the United States in February 2004 after they approved my Permanent Resident Visa (marriage based). We had taken the DCF route.

I have been here in US now for an Year & 4 Months. This February i applied and got a Secured Credit Card from Orchard Bank. I have been using it frequently and paying it off and it's in good shape. Yet, i have no credit established here.

I have tried everything from store credit, furniture store credit, t-mobile cell phone, to a car loan... i get turned down for everything!! In fact, we just traded in our vehicle and my wife put me as a co-signee... the bank said that they will only give her the loan and if we put my name as a co-signee, they will *not* give the loan. So we had to remove my name from the loan to get the loan. Basically they said the same thing, no Credit Established.

How do i establish credit here? I'm almost 6 months into my Secured Credit Card, but i don't really have anything else because i don't get approved for anything else. I don't understand how am i supposed to build credit if i don't get approved for anything.

I applied for financing for a $1000 furniture set the other day and i was turned down for that as well.

Anyone got any tips on what i can do to establish credit here?

Thanks,
Mickey

psychobabbler1

Best thing to do is search the archives, as this topic has been posted and discussed ad nauseam in the past. There's a lot of good info in the previous posts that should be able to help you out.

PHILLY2004

It can take 6 months of credit history to get a credit score, which is what most companies use to determine your credit worthiness. Applying for credit in so many places is going to HURT your credit score, you need to have some patience. Have you checked your credit to see if Orchard Bank is reporting your account? If you haven’t checked it, do so. If you don't see your Orchard account, call them and complain. They know that's the only reason you have an account with them. Doing what you are doing works (except applying in so many places), but credit takes a little time. An Orchard account is how my husband started his credit history and we just got a car loan together at a good rate!

DCMark

All these applications are hurting your credit. Stop!

Get added to your wife's credit cards and bank accounts.

CarlM

Mickey,

Firts thing i did was put some money in a bank savings account, then borrow against it for 2 years. (Interest rate was minimal.. 4% i think). After the first year i was mailed an application for a crappy rate credit card which i took, then i repaid my bank loan and borrowed against a car thru the same bank. Credit score now is 700 (and this is within 3 years).

Takes time, but youll get there. Every rejection will lower your points again so don't keep applying!!

katesuitersback

I did the same thing when I got here. Couldn't get anything except a $500 secured credit card from my bank. They were very helpful, though, and suggested working on this for one year, and then apply for an upgrade, which I did, and got approved for an unsecured card. You need an extreme amount of patience and good self-discipline, so don't go nuts with the credit applications, as this will lower what credit score you do have. Good luck!

Kate. xxx

fatbrit

You will not have a credit score until Orchard Bank have posted 6 months of usage data to the bureaus. They post 1 to 2 months behind, so you'll need to wait a little longer. On your Orchard Bank card, do not use more than 20% of the maximum limit.

Do not keep applying for credit all over the place. This is destroying your future score. More than a couple of rejected applications a year is too many. Plan your credit apps -- you should only apply if you know you have a good chance of being approved. Also, choose wisely. Orchard Bank is subprime. Your future apps should be for prime cards only.

If your wife has goodish credit, get her to add you to one of her cards (preferably as a joint account holder rather than an additional user in a couple of months -- you usually need to phone a CSR and ask for this rather than fill in the additional user application found on the CC bill.

ian-mstm

Each of these credit applications will negatively affect your score. While it may seem counter-intuitive, you should stop applying right now! Having a secured credit card is also not the ideal situation if they don't report your payment history to the big 3 credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The easiest way to establish credit is to get added to your wife's gas cards.

Ian

Rete

And that is the reason why. You don't carry a balance forward on your secured card. Instead of paying it off when the bill comes, pay it off in two months or three months rather than immediately. By paying it all at one time you are not showing that you can "handle" debt.

fatbrit

Here I'm afraid I have to detract from Rete's usual excellent advice. Unfortunately, she is rather fixed and insular in her views, a fact I find incredulous when she moderates the most multinational forum on BE, a place where I would have thought this exposure to so many new ideas from around the world would challenge her rigid views and perhaps round them a little. She is, however, usually a fair and just moderator -- so perhaps all is not lost!

You do not need to pay ANY interest to get a FICO score since the algorithm does not take account of this in any way when calculating your scores. As evidence of this, please use the FICO estimator to be found @ http://www.bankrate.com/brm/fico/calc.asp and provided to bankrate.com by the very same folks who licence the scoring system to the bureaus. Nowhere does it ask you what interest rate you are paying on your credit lines. The reason, it would be logical to assume, is that the interest you are paying is not releted to your score.

From personally reading bureau credit scores on a daily basis, I can also tell you that there is no record of either the interest rate or total interest payments on your line. Sure -- I can certainly make a guesstimate from the other figures available to me. But that's all it is!

Finally we should consider the underwriting process since many loan approvals are not made solely on your FICO score. From speaking to underwriters and reading many underwriting guidelines, I can assure you that I have never seen interest paid on loan lines as an underwriting decision criterion.

To sum it up, if you do or do not pay interest on your loan lines, this makes absolutely no difference to your FICO score or whether or not you will be approved for a loan.

I would be interested to hear Rete's justification for her assertion. There is always a chance I may be wrong...

Noorah101

Hi Mickey,

In a nutshell... my husband came here from Turkey with NO credit history. He's been here in the USA 14 months now. The first thing we did is get him a secured card from our own bank. I also added him to 2 of my own credit cards. About 8 months later, we got him his own department store card (based on his secured card) and his own gas card. Just last month, he was approved for his very first visa card, all on his own, with a fairly high limit. During the 14 months, he had applied for a couple of other cards and had gotten denied based on no credit history....so we waited a good while before applying for the one he just got approved for. It takes time and patience, but eventually your credit will improve. As has been suggested, wait about 8 months after you get your secured card to try for anything else, and if your wife has good credit, get added to her card(s).

Best Wishes,
Rene

Steffi

As others have already mentioned I would tell your wife to add your name as a joint account holder on her credit cards. I applied for a credit card through my bank and got denied. Then my husband added me as a joint account holder. When we got back from 3 weeks vacation I found 6 or 7 credit card applications in the mailbox. I assume that I got all those because I was added to my husband's account. I applied for one of them a few days ago but have not heard back from them yet whether or not I was accepted. I could be wrong and they may deny me again, but I'm hoping that it is because I now have good credit that they sent me all these applications and will therefore hopefully accept my pre-approved application. So we'll see. But I would do the same...get your wife to add you as a joint card holder.

jasonabc

Rete's not talking about rates of interest on credit lines? In fact the only one who keeps bringing it up is you - and it's irrelvevant to the OP's question. Rete is saying don't pay off the balance in full in one go - instead concentrate on *making regular payments* to pay it off. Credit companies want to see you are responsible with your money and are able to budget to make regular payments to clear your debt - paying it off in one lump sum does nothing to prove this to them.

Try looking up from your (undoubtedley fascinating......*yawn*) daily bureau credit scores and read what people post.

fatbrit

If you don't pay off the balance in full (and you are not using a special 0% interest rate), you are paying interest. Paying interest or not paying interest makes NO difference to your credit score or your chances of being approved for a new loan. Therefore, you are wasting your money.

For you Jason, I would certainly like to see you pay the maximum interest on all your loans to satisfy yourself that you have made the most sacrifice for your unsubstantiated and ridiculous claim. For everybody else, I'd suggest you only pay interest where your financial situation so dictates.

My advice for nice folks stands:
*Use the card regularly (at least once every 6 months).
*Do not use more than 20% of the available limit.
*Pay it off in full and on time every month.

My advice for Jason is somewhat different:
*Use the card all the time.
*Use no less than 90% of the available limit.
*Make minimum payment every month so you are paying maximum interest.

jasonabc

As someone who arrived here 18 months ago on a K1 with no credit and now has very good credit what makes you think I need your advice (or would even bother to take it?)