stephon113

My wife got here through k-1 more than a yr. ago and does not have credit. Does anyone have sucessful stories of establishing credit?

fatbrit

How's your credit (honestly!)?

stephon113

My credit is normal and recently checked my credit report. I have a score of 720. I need to establish credit for my wife so in the future she could open her own cell phone or other stuffs requiring credit.

inquisitive40

Put her on some of your credit cards or something that you pay regularly which reports to the credit bureaus. Within a year or so she should have pretty good credit also.

The other option is to get a secured credit card for her, this will cost you a deposit with the bank which acts as security for the cards credit limit.

Patrick

fatbrit

720 is fine. Attach her to one of your quality credit cards, preferably as a joint account user rather than additional user. You usually need to ring the customer reps to find out if they can do this; some can, some can't.

NEVER run this card > 20% of the maximum limit. However, you don't need to pay interest on it -- it makes no difference to your credit score.

Let her apply for her own card no sooner than 7 months after she first is issued the joint account card.

Take it slowly! It requires at least two years minimum to build a robust high score.

Hypertweeky

Dang Patrick!!, You are starting to sound American

Hypertweeky

You are nosey and naughty

Just kidding my fellow European..

inquisitive40

LOL... wonder how many Irish will say I have an american accent

Patrick

Hypertweeky

I miss-worded my response, I should have said "express" like an American, you obviously still have an Irish accent... if not how do you explain your immigration and driver's license success??

inquisitive40

LOL.... this time next week I will be there and will report back how my accent sounded

Patrick

Hypertweeky

Send us a tape.. Please!!
How does it feel to finally visit your family after such long time?, I bet you can't believe it!!

Noorah101

Hi stephon,

My husband came here exactly 1 year ago on a K-1 also. I added him to my American Express and Discover card. Later on, he opened a secured visa card through our bank. After a few months of using that, I added him to my gas card (Chevron), and he opened his own department store card (Mervyns). After getting his secured card, he switched his cell phone a new account in his name.

I just ran a free credit report on him a couple of weeks ago, and sure enough, all that stuff shows up on his credit report, which is great. My own credit is excellent, so that will reflect well on his credit.

I had been going around and around with our bank now to unsecure his visa card and get a regular one, but now that I know that I know the AmEx and Discover shows up on his credit, we're not as concerned about it.

Best Wishes!
Rene

stephon113

Noorah101:

Thanks for your info, we're banking with Wells Fargo Bank and I will ask them to open a secured credit card maybe with a small deposit of 1k.

Noorah101

Be careful with Wells Fargo. That's our bank too, and I"m having trouble UNsecuring the secured card. Just be prepared to have that money tied up for more than a year. My hubby put $500 for the unsecured card. Also...I"m just now finding out that Wells Fargo seems to have the policy that they won't issue a regular credit card to someone who is NOT a permanent resident yet. So if you live somewhere (like we do) that takes a long time to get the interview and PR status, you might not get the unsecured card very fast.

I'm sort of regretting getting the unsecured card at Wells Fargo now. You might want to shop around, and ask specifically what the requirements are for an unsecured AND a secured card. Ask for sure if she can get a regular card if she's not a PR yet. And ask how long you need to keep the unsecured card before they'll review it. Wells Fargo is 12 to 18 months.

Any questions, let me know.
Best Wishes,
Rene

Noorah101

oops, I just noticed she came on the K-1 more than a year ago. She might already be a PR. But, I know Wells Fargo won't review the secured card for more than 12 months....so that money will be tied up that long.

Might not hurt to shop around first. From what I'm finding out, simply being a Wells Fargo customer doesn't give you any benefit in their credit department.

Rene