Twixy

Hi, I'm unfamiliar with borrowing money outside of my home country of the United States.

Will New Zealand banks look at my good credit from abroad, or is this a complete nonfactor? If it is a non-factor how long should I reasonably expect to wait before having decent credit for a car or house loan?

MrsFychan

when we came over the banks were not interested in our credit history only in what we had available to us at that point of time and the amount of money coming in to the household from job and that the job was ongoing

Justcol

They will take it into account.
I got a mortgage 3 months after moving here

LauraNotts

Depends what visa you are on. I am currently on an Essential Skills visa and had to argue myself blue in the face (on a full time professional salary) to get a credit card with a $500 limit and I can't access finance cards at all. I have a perfectly healthy credit history in the UK but because my visa isn't permanent at the moment they won't budge.

If you're a Resident you should have no problems

MrsFychan

I do actually think the rules changed around this maybe last year as I have others now having problems with this type of thing/ When we came over, 3 years ago we had no problems getting mortgage or CC and did not have to show anything from the UK. We just had to prove we had the deposit for the mortgage and was in full time employment for the CC

Charismatic

You'll need a deposit (20% due to reserve bank) and UMI to cover repayments. Shouldn't be a problem not having a credit history but they may need to submit it to their credit team (i.e. not a straight through process), a few of the big 4 banks (ANZ, Westpac, BNZ/NAB and ASB/CBA) run UK operations so you could just have a quick chat.

moving2NZ2013

Generally they aren't bothered about credit ratings abroad.
All they wanted to know is what visa we were on, we are on work to residency visa. Wouldn't give lend us anything until we have residency.

Tom H

If you're a resident, you should have no issues borrowing money

*unless you're trying to get a house with a deposit under 20% but that's another story*

If you're not a resident, good luck in getting anything! You really need to have an excellent relationship with your bank to do so.

lisamct

I got a car loan no problem on a work wise within a week of arriving (no mention of my UK credit rating) but, that was 4 years ago.
Home loan just over a year ago on residency visa and again my old UK credit rating was never discussed.