First time banking in the USA
 

Hi

Whats is a good bank to go with in the US. I will be moving there for work on an L1 visa. I will need a cheqing account, it would also be nice to get credit card so I can build up so i credit. At the moment I working in Canada and banking with RBC only because they gave me a cc when I opened the account. Anything like this in the US and California in particular.

thanks

Re: First time banking in the USA
 

Each bank is different. The best way to get started on your credit is to get a secured card through whichever bank you choose. I bank at Wells Fargo and have no problems (I'm a USC but my foreign husband had none either).

Rene

Re: First time banking in the USA
 

Wells Fargo were good with us when I first arrived in the USA. Since moved to a credit union.

Re: First time banking in the USA
 

I'm fine with Wells Fargo for general banking. Took a while but I opened an account with them on Day 2 of me being in the US. As a loan company they have been a whole different story for me and I won't ever even bother with them again for loan purposes.

See also the threads on American Express global transfer, if it's not too late. Otherwise you may have to put down a deposit on your credit card (ie secured, as Noorah says) and that becomes your credit line. After a while theoretically you qualify for an unsecured one with a slightly larger credit line.

Re: First time banking in the USA
 

My wife(green card) and I(US citizen) walked into a BOA the day after arriving in Florida and met with a very nice lady who opened us a core checking account and a credit card each ($1000 limit each) so we were quite pleasently surprised. We had alot of paperwork and ID's and the BOA lady was very impressed I had my original SS card after being in UK for the last 18 years. One thing we did fib about was a residential address and gave her a UPS mailbox one. I'm sure she knew this but didn't say anything.....I guess we made a good impression.