Jmaster911

As some of you will know, my wife and I are moving to the US on the 29th Dec. My wife is a USC and has a "fair" credit rating, I obviously don't have anything yet.

We are both keen to buy a house in late 2008/early 2009 and I need to know what the best and quickest route is to start building that credit history. I could also do with some answers to the questions below.

1. We are planning to buy a couple of cars when we arrive. We both have $15000 each for the cars. Would it be wiser to bank the money and just get a joint credit loan and pay the loan with the money in the bank, thus building a payment history.

2. My wife is putting me on her already existing bank and Credit card accounts. Will this help my credit?

3. AIG offer to open bank accounts and Credit Cards for new expats (we may use them for Car Ins also). Would this be a wise thing for me to do or is it going to be easer jut to ride on the back of my wifes history?

Any other ideas based on our circumstances is appreciated.

Ray

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Fatbri...it_and_Finance

MsElui

we came over in oct and ended up taking some kind of package with aig. had to pay $400 fee for it - but still ended up getting a cheaper insurance quote than we could get alone (even taking into account the 400!)

Jmaster911

Thanks for the feedback, is one of you a USC, if so are you saying that both you the UKC and the USc get the insurance cheaper through AIG?

sangiano

I don't know how the USC part will affect it. It may be different if you have a USC as the policyholder. Perhaps a few phone calls are in order.

We (both UK citizens) are arriving in US in February 2008 and AIG quoted $766 when others were quoting $2000 (for 6 months).

I think the main difference is that AIG will take our UK no claims bonus into consideration, whereas any US insurance company won't.

As MsElui said, even with the $400 joining fee, it becomes a total non-brainer.

Bob

There's been a few threads on credit recently, and some on AIG in the past that might be worth digging up...

MsElui

both uk citizens. We got some kind of ex-pat package. The package cost $400 but we already saved more than that on the car insurance they offered us. They should be able to get us other deals for health insurance mortgages other insurance etc as part of same package we have already paid for. They were recomemded to us by the car leasing company International autosource.

The car insurance was dependant on us passing the us driving test within 30 days of taking the insurance out (but we have done that now so no issue).

veryfunny

Pay your bills on time and you do not have to have great credit to buy a house and I am not talking about sub prime lending.

Secondly,
Try getting a secure credit card, your bank should be able to help you.

If all goes well within a year your credit should grow very fast.

Sad to say but in the USA, you need to have debt in order to build a solid FICO score.

BrewMonkey

I used the $400 AIG membership to get a Wells Fargo mortgage before moving here, along with a 5.85% rate in early 2007, which was better than some American colleagues were getting. We also got the buildings/contents insurance with them. I picked up the keys from the realtor the day we flew in from the UK.

We also have car insurance through AIG Global Star, which was way lower than anywhere else.

Didn't use them for getting a bank account. Just went and opened a Comerica account with my passport as ID.

Used my UK Amex card to get one here (they used the credit history and I have a large limit compared to what I was offered from US cards).

Opened a Macys store card account using my passport number.

scrubbedexpat099

A lot of problems go away when you have a US Spouse. I was just added to the auto insurance, no charge. For a mortgage they can do an international credit report, you might not need it by then.