Re: Building credit
 

Yes, I am from the UK.

I (we) bought 16 months after I entered on my CR-1 (11/2001) - my wife is a USC, lived in the US all her life prior to us getting married, when she spent almost two years in the UK IOW she had a decent credit score of her own.

I do not know if I could have qualified earlier, but I switched jobs and relocated to another state, so buying earlier wasn't something we considered, at least not in terms of submitting a mortgage application. .... Per oft-repeated advice here on BE, buying immediately after you arrive, before you're settled, might be a catastrophic mistake, and it would have been for us!

I/we qualified on my income (my wife wasn't working at that time), and I had only had been in my current job for two months at that time. We only borrowed apparently about half what the bank was apparently willing to lend! :blink:

Re: Building credit
 

No it is not a question of which agency, but the scoring method. Most lenders use FICO scores but, contrary to popular belief, there are many versions of the FICO score. The more recently introduced Vantage score (which Credit Karma uses) also has different versions.

For monitoring your own credit, the information that matters is the trend. So as long as you use the same score consistently you will be able to monitor how things are going.

Re: Building credit
 

Bob was talking about deposit fees to get the utilities up and running, not the recurring monthly use charges. It was not a typo.

Rene

Re: Building credit
 

When you buy a place you pay a one off $500-600 for utilities deposit? Assume this isn’t the case if you rent?

Re: Building credit
 

Thank you I will do this!

Re: Building credit
 

Interesting thanks for coming back to me!

Re: Building credit
 

Ur welcome. :)

Re: Building credit
 

Yes this can be the case even for a renter! It depends if utilities are included or not.

Re: Building credit
 

Some rentals include some utilities (I think water is most likely) but not all do. I believe that (some) utilities are more often included in apartment rentals (blocks of flats), but much less often in rented single family (detached), duplexes (semis), or town homes (terraced homes).

Re: Building credit
 

You have no US credit. Be prepared to put down a deposit, ranging from $50-600 to every utility.

Be happy if they ask for less, but still budget for it.

You'll get it back of course, but it's still a up front set up cost to have in mind.

Re: Building credit
 

Even if you rent. Unless you don't want gas/electric/phone/internet.

Water will be up to landlord, usually.

Rubbish collection, up to town/landlord.

Re: Building credit
 

We had to place deposits for Electric, Gas and Water (we rent a single family home). They all got repaid or credited within 6 months. For Electric, as we only have one supplier, we also had to live with a higher rate to start with and we were farmed out to a bad credit version of the company. 12 months later and they let us join the well behaved people.

Mortgage - you can quality immediately using certain products and your UK history. For a conventional USA mortgage you are looking at around 2 years, but other products do exist that you'd probably qualify for earlier. Again, expect a less than market leading rate. We haven't pushed the button yet, but 15 months after arriving we have an offer on the table for a mortgage (waiting a few months before proceeding). Buying without the right status does present some risks (as many on here will happily provide advice on) - you'd need to balance those quite considerable risks vs. the benefits in your own personal situation.

Re: Building credit
 

I moved over in November, for a job, and bought a house immediately. A couple of mortgage brokers would sort out a loan without any US credit record, relying on UK documentation. However these would have been at a rate of 5%.
Having lived in the US before I already had a social security number and dormant credit record. With a little effort, this allowed us to access a lower rate. My USC wife has a good credit record, and more active thanks to paying off student loans. I don't think this helped much, as she didn't have a US job lined up, so no US income.
And even though my credit score etc was enough to buy a house, the gas and elec companies still want a few hundred dollars deposit. Maybe just being a new customer in the area. And not having any US credit cards of my own at the time.

Re: Building credit
 

DanJ26 I was coming back and forth for a while but actually moved over formally Nov 2016 but before that I had obtained a mortgage which is now with Wells Fargo. Beware I was referred to a "Mortgage Broker" by the builders and they tried to rip me off however when I reported this to the building company the director arranged for me to speak with a different broker and I got 4% fixed my wife is american but she has no income my income is from UK Let me know if you need any help happy to share my experiences but you must be very very careful that you dont get caught up in the many scams

Re: Building credit
 

Can anyone please tell me at what point I should be able to view my credit profile on the likes of Credit Karma et al?

I arrived in the US four weeks ago, received my SSN one week ago, opened my first American bank account today and, thus far, have not sought or obtained any credit anywhere. Credit Karma doesn't recognise me at all (it says my information doesn't match any records) - is this because I'm such a newbie to the country/bank? Or will it only recognise me once I've applied for credit somewhere?

Thank you.