JockBrocas

Someone else mentioned these credit unions could be quite helpful. I have accounts with wachovia for a few years and wonder if that would help.

Ja5on

If you have a US partner then get them to apply for one and add you as a joint holder....It gives you better rates/rewards plus a higher limit....That's IF you have a US partner....

Michael

Wachovia is now Wells Fargo. So if you have a Wachovia account, check with Wells Fargo.

Bob

The piggy back jump start doesn't really work these days. It'll get you signed up for their card, but you won't gain any of the credit history/score of the joint signer anymore.

Ja5on

I thought it got you history which seems to be the main thing. Also we got a car loan in both our names....my credit is over 700 but no lines of credit over a year old.

Juswus

I found if I used a paper application it got refused, but if I applied online, it would often say it refused me, but then I would receive the card in the mail a week later.

Bob

It used to, which was the loop hole everyone suggested....but that doesn't happen anymore, since people with good credit were making money by charging folks to piggy back off their history.

You get the card, you get the score, but you don't get the history.

Ja5on

Oh well! We have our auto loans and a credit card with a big enough limit. I guess I will just always use my wives credit.

Thanks for the heads up though.

tonrob

While the card's only impacting your wife's credit, if the auto loan is in joint names then this should contribute towards your own I'd have thought. You could accelerate things a bit by getting a secured credit card in your own name. Twelve months from now your credit could be a lot more rosy.

Bink

As Bob's highlighted, having a good score isn't everything. I still get issues with credit due to the length of my history here in the US.
Some store cards can be easy to get and at least get you started. Avoid Macy's - I know half a dozen expats who have been declined Macy's cards with good credit scores.
A secured card is guaranteed. It requires putting money down but is a good way to get started. It's not good to have a lot of credit inquiries on your account in a short time though so pick your applications wisely.
It can be done though - After 2 years here, I now have a mortgage, car loan and credit cards.

Ja5on

Yeah I have a secure BoA card that I had to put $100 down for and costs me $40 a year but only has a $500 limit, kinda pointless since every time I want to buy something big it doesn't cover it. Hopefully we will have at least 20% to put towards our mortgage when we finally decide to buy something.

tonrob

I had the BoA secured card with a $500 limit. Spent one third of the limit each and every month, paying the balance off in full each time. After six months they wrote to say they were unsecuring it. I got my deposit back and transferred the card (including history) to one of their fee free cards.

I still have the card. I never use it, but because average age of credit is important I'm not going to close it. They upped the limit over the years, presumably hoping I was going to start using it again. It now stands at $10,000.

Your BoA card is hardly pointless. It probably provides the best starting point to getting your credit sorted.

Bink

I didn't have to put down 20%. I got an FHA insured loan so only had to put down the 3.5% (as it happens I put down more but my point was I didn't need to). Plus as I bought new the builder covered closing costs etc. Having a UK mortgage helped me immensely. I'm fortunate that I live in Houston where housing is reasonable as I maxed out the FHA loan amount but here it's enough to buy a nice house.

Keep using the secured card it will help. The real pain is waiting to be able to get a long enough history and unfortunately this just takes time.

JockBrocas

now we hit on another point. Mortgages, how easy or difficult are those to get here for expats.

Nutmegger

Did you read the wiki link on finance you were given earlier?