KingTei

Hello campers,

I need your advice.

My wife is an American citizen and I'm British.

I've received my SSN today and I'm eager to start building my credit profile in the US. So far, I have only a Bank of America and a TD bank account.

What do you reckon I do in order to start building a credit profile? Thanking you in advance.

Cheers!

bakedbean

Hi and welcome to the forum.

If your question relates to the US, then you'd be best asking the USA sections of the forum. Just go to the main index page, and scroll down. You should find it OK.

Jerseygirl

Hi...welcome to BE.

I have moved your thread over to our US forum. Someone should be along shortly to help you.

Britsimon

There is a very well written sticky on this subject - here - http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Fatbri...it_and_Finance

Pulaski

In short, borrow money, pay it back. Repeat. The more you repeat it (within reason), the better your credit rating will become. The primary drivers of credit ratings are credit cards, car loans, consumer finance, and mortgages. Not all "credit" leads to a report to the credit bureau, so just paying your utility bills won't help.

In practice, getting a credit history is going to be very difficult (or unreasonably expensive i.e. fees for using a US credit card outside the US, and then sending US$ to the US to pay the bill) until you relocate to the US.

civilservant

What makes you think he isn't already in the US?

Indeed - I didn't think you could get an SSN until you were.

Bob

In summary.

Time and debt.

The wiki, linked above covers the details nicely.

KingTei

Thanks to all of you lovely folks. I appreciate your advice very much

@ Pulaski: yes I've already crossed the pond.

Michael

If your wife's credit is good, have her put you as an "Authorized User" on her credit cards and within a month or so, her credit history (all her back history) for those cards will show up on your credit reports at the credit bureaus.

KingTei

Awesome!!! Thanks

Sportychico

Get a pre paid store, credit, bank card and start using it asap

HannahJ38

As Michael said , but get credit card, make a purchase that's big,( could be flight tickets, expensive clothes,obviously only things you would need) (not extortionate) and then make sure you pay it back as soon as possible, same as any other credit cards around the world to get a good credit rating.

Pulaski

That's the tricky bit, right there!
That's the easy bit, once the tricky bit is taken care of.