Greetings from NY.

I have been here for six months as a Non-resident, and am trying to build a US credit rating.

I have a prepaid credit card which I keep very much on top of, and I have been trying to access my credit report through services such as Credit Karma and Credit Sesame, but I always fail the ID validation process, where they ask questions such as:

- what are your US student loan monthly payments
- what are your US auto loan repayments

Obviously I fail these because none of this applies to me. But this means I cannot view my report.

Is there a reliable credit score service which is more tailored to new arrivals in the US? Or after only 6 months do I most likely have little credit to report at all?

Any wisdom is vastly appreciated!

Douglas

Six months is a bit of a turning point for credit history - but 12 months or more is really needed to get anything more than an existence. I couldn't get my Credit Karma report until around a year, but did start to get an endless stream of Capital One credit card offers by six months in.

www.annualcreditreport.com

That's the real one which will give you your report free once from each of the three agencies each year.

Your history is not long enough.

Also note some of the security questions always ask you about things you don't have or feed you intentionally false info. There is usually an answer option along the lines of "I do not have an account with Blogs Bank". This does not mean you have failed the security check.

You don't need to get all three at once either, can space them out a bit if you want to get a bit more of a spread of your history over a year.

I've done that in the past but haven't recently. I've noticed more and more banks and card issuers are providing a score of some description for free (usually with some slightly deceptive name like FICOsomethingorother, so you're not quite sure how representative of your real FICO score it is).

In the end unless your history has issues due to inaccuracies or actual unpaid debt and you are looking to get a mortgage or a loan in the near future, obsessing over your score/history is rather pointless. Controlled debt, i.e. small manageable amount paid off in full each month and you'll soon be on the way to a reasonable score.

That said, length of history often trips up new immigrants and that is harder to fix other than by waiting.

You just brought it to mind, I haven't heard from Capital One in ages and they were writing a couple of times a week, wonder what I did to upset them?

Amex have filled the void though, desperate to give me a Platinum Card with a $450 annual fee a silly sods obviously didn't check my nationality! Hubby Dubs upset as they never offer him one LOL

Just to let you know I had a similar thing.. I haven't been in the USA for over 15 years so I was surprised when on Credit Karma it was asking me about loans... There should be an option to say it doesn't apply, etc. They are trick questions because if you are who you say you are, you'll know you've never had these loans! Hope that helps xx

I've lived in the US for 24 years and am now retired. I tried to get my credit report for the first time recently, and failed. They asked me a question about my most recent car loan ... problem was, that was about 15 years ago. I cannot remember what bank the loan was from, and no longer have any records. Anyway, I failed the security test so no access to my credit reports. Oh well.

I believe you can ask for your reports by mail if you have trouble with the website.

As I said above, unless you think there is something wrong with the report or you are considering applying for credit soon, no real point.

As others have said, the validation questions have the option "none of the above" when they ask about loans you have never had. These are security questions to verify that you are who you claim to be.

Credit reports via annualcreditreport.com do not provide credit scores, but are the "official" way to get credit reports once a year and check their accuracy.

Credit Karma and Credit Sesame (and others) are useful for monitoring your credit score and how it is changing over time.

I think I was feeling guilty about never ever having seen my credit report. Certainly I never envisage applying for credit. But if you never look at your report, how do you know if other people are applying for credit in your name etc.?

Th benefit of annualcreditreport isn't to check your FICO (that's not free from there anyway) but to make sure that nothing odd is on your report, as in evidence or attempted or actual opening of credit that you didn't initiate etc. That's why I use it to do a 4 month cycle through the 3 reporters.

I wasn't able to use Credit Karma but Experian gives me a score. You have to pay a monthly fee though.

My local Credit Union provides me my (Equifax) FICO score on a monthly basis, all just for keeping a chequing account with them.