DaveTexas

Hi,

I am a British national looking for some assistance / advice regarding acquiring an unsecured personal loan.

I have an excellent UK credit rating (in the high 900's), and I wish take out a loan of £10,000 with a repay period between 2 - 3 years.

My circumstances are different from the average consumer; I currently live and work in Texas. However, I still have a permanent address in the UK, and relatives reside there.

My annual wage is around $75,000 (£46,000), and I am also a Landlord in the UK with an income of £7,000 from my property; combined annual income of £53,000.

The purpose of the loan is to buy a car, home appliances, and IT equipment relating to my work.

As my US credentials only allow me to be here for work purposes; I have a zero credit score; therefore my only choice for a loan is a UK institution.

I asked my bank, who I have been with for more than 20 years for a loan; I was flat told NO because I was not living and working in the UK.

Does anyone know any UK loan companies that are willing to provide loans to Brits (like me) working abroad, and would be worth my while applying to?

Even if someone could point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated,

Thanks,

Dave

Bob

Unsecured, no chance....how are they going to claim anything back when you aren't in the UK....it ain't going to happen.

If you put the house on the line, then you're in with a shot.

Anyway, plenty of threads on here in the wiki on kick starting the credit history, best is global transfer of a AmEx card if you've had one in the UK a while.

RICH

You earn enough to get a car loan/lease from a dealer, with a deposit.
Appliances/it equip for work - get your company to shell out. At worst, pay them back.

If I only had your problems.

DaveTexas

Thanks for the reply Bob / Rich

I am new to the 'living abroad' lifestyle and starting from scratch (credit-wise) here is very frustrating. I just acquired a $1000 secured visa credit card to max out, and pay back every month to start building credit.

The house in the UK has a mortgage on it, although I know I own about 60% of the house outright. Is it feasible to take a secured loan out on what I own outright?

I only have a UK Mastercard through my UK Bank.

Rich - I have only been working since the end of July so don't have much of an employment history, but yes I guess it might be worth going to speak to a dealer. I just thought with zero credit I had no chance. Acquiring a car is the main purchase - they rest of the stuff can wait. There is no possibility of my work helping though.

Ozzidoc

I saw your thread on the other website and was going to suggest coming on over to BE...it's a funny old world!

RICH

As I understand it your credit rating does not start at "zero". It won't be high, but as far as car leasing, it does not have to be. After all, if you miss a payment they just come and tow it away.

Appliances can be rented or second hand, if you don't have the cash, it is normal they are included in the property though.

Utilities will want a deposit 3-6 months (water/electric/cable) but you've been here 2 months and know this right?

fatbrit

Don't max it. In fact, 20% of the limit should be your max.

RICH

Agreed, to an extent. Maxing occasionally, but always paying off in full, on time, wont hurt for credit building.

Charma1ne

I would suggest you go and try the car loan route. If you have a credit card then you must have some credit rating and as mentioned above not a lot is needed for a car loan (apart from a deposit) as they just come and take the car off you and kill your credit rating if you bump them...

Failing that you could easily remortgage your house back in the UK or just get another mortgage for the other % of the property that runs alongside it.

If that also isnt an option the third would be a secured loan against your house. Faster process but also will cost more in the long run with the APR.

Cx

Bob

Maxing your secured card is bad.

Car, put a deposit down and get a loan, it's the best way to build up history....don't bother with a lease and get second hand, it'll save a fortune on insurance anyway.

markwm

There are quite afew threads on here detailing how you can lease a car from VW: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...5&highlight=vw

Works very well.

Bink

I agree, but that's pretty difficult on a $1000 limit if you actually want to purchase anything on it rather than just go grocery shopping with it.

Try and keep it under 50% and you should be fine for credit building purposes, the lower the better though.

Car loans are easier to get than anything else, for the rest it's the length of your credit history rather than your score that will be the dominant factor and unfortunately that just takes time and you can't speed the process up.

thinbrit

That is a BAD idea. You have $1,000 of credit available to you, and would be utilizing it all. Your debt to available credit ratio will kill your score.


Paying off in full has little to no effect on credit score building.
Credit bureaus pull the balance periodically, and have no way to know if it was paid in full or not. They just see you paid on time.
Imagine you charge 80% of the limit to that card each month, and then pay it off in full, and repeat that every month. The credit bureaus only see the snapshot of the balance. They typically do not know whether it was paid in full, or you are only paying the interest. The debt shows as "revolving", even though it is new debt each month.

We spend everything on a Discover card, just to get the cash back bonus. Each month the full balance is paid. The debt shows on our credit files as revolving. When we recently refinanced our mortgage, we worked on building our score. All purchases for 3 months before we applied went on our debit card. Our 'revolving' credit dropped, our debt to credit ratio dropped, our credit scored jumped up.
It may be anecdotal, but our 2.75% mortgage rate, and 4.05% unsecured loan on new farm equipment (both taken out in the last 6 weeks) are testament to it working.

Keep the balance low, pay on time. A high balance, even when paid off each month, could negatively impact your score.

Bink

I still find this crazy. I always thought a better measure would be for them to report how much you roll each month as that would be a better indicator of whether you can afford it than a meaningless snapshot.

thinbrit

I suppose looking at it from the credit bureaus perspective, you could be living beyond your means or at least treading water.
Lets say for arguments sake you get paid $1,000 a month and you have a $1,000 credit card limit. Each month you max out your $1,000 credit card, but when you get paid you pay it off in full. Only to find that by doing so you have no money for the current month, so you have to use the card again. Your $1,000 credit is actually being utilized in full, and you cannot afford more debt.
I'm not saying the system is perfect, it is definitely open to being 'played' or manipulated. The bureaus do not publish how they calculate scores. This leaves it an uneven playing field.

Another good example, is not paying off debt before applying for new debt. Which sounds counterintuitive. This is how it worked for us, again in regards to our remortgage. We had one payment left on a $45k vehicle loan, and I almost paid it off early to clear that debt. I then realized that this would mark the account as closed. The auto loan lender was actually reporting the loan as a credit line, so I had $45k of credit available on that account, and was only utilizing $700 (the last payment amount). Leaving that account open until after we finalized the remortgage was very advantageous in bolstering our credit scores. Its a crazy system.