Danoz

Hi,

We are in the process of relocating to the US for a new job. I have done a lot of reading about the problems with not having a US credit history, and the pains of building one from scratch. As a result, I wondered if there was a better way.

I have read about the AMEX and transferring your history across to a US account if you have held the account in the UK for at least 12 months(and I have read some who have managed to do it with less).

However I went and spoke to Citi Bank here in the UK, and they indicated that if you open a gold relationship, you carry that with you anywhere in the world with Citi. They are indicating that means my UK credit history is on file for another Citi branch to see (or at least know that I am trust worthy), they will organise the opening of accounts before we leave in the US and setup for a credit card to be opened (when I arrive i go into my nominated branch and pick these up).

But what I would really like to know is, has anyone gone down the Citi Gold route, and has it actually helped them in a positive manner with getting started in the US? One thing I would also like to know is, has anyone been able to apply for credit (e.g. personal loan for a car) soon after arriving going down the Citi Gold route?

Thanks

Pulaski

I don't recall hearing of anyone who had used an existing Citibank relationship to get started in the US. I imagine it would work just fine, but please be aware that, despite what you might expect, Citibank is not a particularly large bank in the US (domestically, about half the size of Wells Fargo, JPM Chase, and Bank of America), with a fairly limited branch network, so depending on where you're located, banking withCiti might be more trouble than its worth.

Danoz

Thanks Pulaski. Moving to Tampa, so hopefully their presence there will be satisfactory.

Pulaski

They have a large corporate office in Tampa so you should be OK.

Bob

Some folks have said using them has helped in opening a bank account in advance. How easy that really ended up being I don't know.

This history and credit card, is that history that would be reported to the 3 bureaus, or is it limited to within the bank?

Danoz

Bob, I would guess its within the Citi global network. But what I am thinking is, that if this allows me to get financial products in the US via Cti, then this gets me onto the credit ladder quicker and gives us the ability to expedite a few things, that might take longer should we need to do everything from scratch.

Granted the Citi products may not be the best value (I dont know, still trying to figure this all out), but after a while you could swap them out with better value else where. or at least that is how my thinking goes at the moment.

Sally Redux

We tried to do something similar with Citibank when we moved but it was a complete disaster, in fact I've got the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. Proceed with caution.

Danoz

Sally, what was it that was a disaster? And when you say similar, what was it that you tried to do?

DMDA

When we were setting up a good few years ago there were only a handful of actual branches in Tampa, so depending on where OP lives he may have a bit of a drive to his local branch. Maybe someone still there can comment as to whether this has changed, but when I was there last year it hadn't.

Cash can be withdrawn from 7-Eleven ATM's and of course there's online banking.

Sally Redux

We made a journey to London to speak to a 'special' adviser who set up an account with them that we could use in the US, and transferred our money to it. What they actually did was put this into a dollar account in the UK, and we couldn't access any money when we got here, couldn't pick up the cars we had ordered and were using cash we had given the kids as 'holiday money' to buy basics. Citibank were really hard to get hold of and totally unhelpful about their cock-up.

Danoz

Ok thanks for the heads up. We have already done something similar where in the UK we have opened an GBP and USD account and have linked our debit card to both accounts. Supposedly this way when we first get there and before we can pick up our US accounts from a US branch we have access to USD with no international transfer charges. They have indicated that they will open account for us in the US as well, but they cannot be activated before we get there, so we will need to go into a branch and show some id etc.. and they will then activate the accounts and credit cards. Fingers crossed this at least sorts out bank account situation.

The other thing I am waiting to hear back on, is whether they will then give us a loan for a car when we arrive since supposedly the gold account is portable globally and it will have our UK credit score on the relationship details. Anyway I will let people know how we get on, as it might be an option for others as well.

Sally Redux

Fingers crossed.