Padycosforbos

Sorry Lads... I promise I will be the first at the bar (If I ever get there lol) I honestly appreciate your help,and this forum is a godsend.

Wondering - How do you get credit checked in NZ - I mean, do I bring with me an experian report,or is it not worth paper its written on over there? If I was looking for a mortgage (and as kind folks have pointed out I might need to buy sooner rather than later with my K9 family) Ok so how long do you have to be in the job/in the country - before you would be considered for a mortgage? Do they look for credit rating from your previous home country, and if so what do you need - - -alot to take into account, I am getting confused

Thanks - I just really need to make a decision, I need to be over there in Jan, and soo much to do before then, so your help is a greatly appreciated

Catchafire

We arrived in the country back in 2004 and TBH I had a pretty crappy credit history back in the UK.

But found that opening a back account here in NZ, it was a clean slate, no credit check or references were required.

After six months we were able to access a loan to buy furniture and get married. In two years we got our mortgage. No hangovers from the UK.

TommyLuck

Sounds sweet.

Presumably though, the other side of that coin is that a good credit rating in the UK bears no relevance either?

Charismatic

There is no credit check for opening accounts. However it will take 6 months before they let you have a credit card unless you implement a special arrangement to mitigate risk (lien over a term deposit or similar).

One of the big international banks like HSBC or Citi might do a foreign credit check.

Catchafire

Probably not, so max out your cards!

BEVS

Mine's a

We arrived clutching our wonderful credit ratings which no-one was interested in.

We also brought proof of our vehicle no claims bonus but I can't remember if anyone was interested in that either.

MrsFychan

no checks for us. got a mortgage offer 3mths after being here and along with that a credit card which enable us to get 2k from the mortgage lender.

Jan n Neil

They dont give a toss about your UK credit wich pissed me off no end cos mine was perfect, walked out of the bank with our eftpos(switch) and credit cards the same day. The APR on finance is a lot more here you are doing well if you get 12% best i have got was 9% but that was 50 % deposit

Mortgage about 6% ish
Neil

sirplug

Had a great credit rating in the UK, which meant nothing here but we got credit cards without any checks. The car insurance was matched with the UK. I told them I had 12 years no claims and they trusted I was telling the truth!

Hurtle

We've only been here 3 weeks, but when we insured our cars, they just took our word for it that we had full no claims bonus. With the second car, I put 50% down and got finance on the rest no problem.

I have been amazed at how easy it do do stuff here.

Bo-Jangles

That was our finding too with regards to the ease of getting credit, they know that you don't have history here so generally assume that you're good for the money. Helps immensely if you have proceeds of house sale languishing in their bank.

With regards to mortgages they could not care less, it's a simple decisions for them, you either pay or they foreclose and get their money from the house anyway. We didn't even need to prove that we had an income.

MrsFychan

We had to provide wage slips and also proof of deposit, even if it was in UK bank account at the time of application.

I must say one thing annoyed me a little bit when we got here, having to go into branch to activate pin number with a teller rather than the atm just seemed a complete waste of time.

newkiwi

Most of the big banks (ANZ/ Westpac/ ASB) are happy to offer you a credit card on the back of a secure job straight away. I think you can apply for a CC as part of applying for a migrant bank account (the one you apply for before you arrive).

Any credit history you have in the UK is a moot point and ignored pretty much.

For homeloans, it often depends on the person you apply through, to improve you chances set up a savings account, and have a regular weekly / monthly payment go into that. After 6 months of not touching that you will be able to show "a history of savings" which is a plus for mortgage lenders.

The bigger the deposit the easier it is too (obv).

bourbon-biscuit

Forgive me if I'm wrong but I don't think a positive UK credit rating makes any difference here because there is no positive credit rating. My s-i-l thought she ought to get a credit card just so she could build up positive credit, but it doesn't work like that.

TommyLuck

What I understand is that they're essentially a tool to judge the 'risk' you pose to a lender, so you're right in the sense it's not a good credit/bad credit situation or a yes/no answer encompassing all lending scenarios. It depends on so many variables.

But, the better you are at paying stuff off, including credit card, direct debits and paying bills on time the better chance you have of securing the loan you need.

There is more to it than that of course.