danj26

Hello, my girlfriend and I are considering getting married at some point next year. She’s a US citizen works in marketing/entertainment and so based at the moment in LA. I’ve been a few times and I do like LA although I love London where I live and where we met May 2016.

In the situation I move to LA / USA I was just hoping for a bit of advice with some burning questions I have:

1) employment- comparable to London how is the job market in LA? for non-entertainment industry? I’m 28 experienced sales manager in insurance. über- am considering doing this for income in the short term until I secure a full time job (hopefully in finance). How much can you typically earn per hour? Any über experiences? I know driving in LA is herendous.
2) finance- my UK credit rating is good but I understand you need to “start again” in the US. How difficult will it be to obtain credit? How long would I need to build credit to get a car loan? Mobile/cell contract? rent an apartment? Besides prepaid/ discovery type credit cards can anyone suggest other ways to build credit? If you earn $50k per year in California currently what is approximate take home amount?
3) culture- visited LA dozen times and I like it. Visiting is obviously very different to living in a place and was hoping to learn of any culture shocks besides the obvious I may experience whilst in LA?

Thanks in advance!
Daniel

tom169

1) Not sure. Check Indeed or similar websites. Never looked into driving Uber.

2) You will start again for the most part. See wiki guide for more info. For cellular you can get T-mobile pay as you go. I pay $43 a month per phone. Rent will probably be hard at first - unless your *then* wife will have good credit?

Discovery? You mean Discover? For the most part they aren't a prepaid card, but are a card network issuer Visa (except Discover own the end-to-end network). They, like many other institutions, offer secured cards that can help you build credit. It's what I did when moving here.

Car loan - I wouldn't put the cart before the horses. Figure out what you will be doing and where you will be working. If a car is necessary or if other means of transport will work. Even then, do you have savings to buy a car in the meantime to avoid taking loans out? From the sounds of it you will be unlendable initially - unless you manage to get on an expat program.

Regarding take home pay a good number to shoot for in crude calculations is 60%.

3) Can't comment on LA - never been. However, I guess it depends on how 'shockable' you are. For me moving to NC wasn't a big deal.

Noorah101

Hopefully that estimated $50K income is a supplement to your then wife's income, because its not enough to survive alone.

Rene

MidAtlantic

How is you'r girlfriend's credit rating? If it is decent, and she has credit cards, you would benefit by becoming an additional cardholder on her account(s) when you are married and have your SSN.

scrubbedexpat099

Not sure Uber is particularly lucrative especially with your likely Insurance costs, thought the market was saturated.

Pulaski

If you have held an Amex card in the UK (for 3mths IIRC) you can swap it for a card in the US. It isn't the perfect answer, but will get a credit card on your US credit history quickly and easily.

BenK91

I can't vouch for living in LA, but I do spend a lot of time there with work (I've been a total of 42 days since early September!). It's a great place, I really like it and as far as culture shocks I wouldn't really say there are any.

I find LA is quite like London in the sense that it can be such a different vibe from one street to the next. I love LA, if I had an extra 0 on the end of my salary I'd happily live there.

I'm fairly certain with Uber you must have held a US driving license for at least a year or two before driving for them. As someone else mentioned I don't think it's particularly lucrative with insurance costs and how many drivers there are. I've never waited more than a couple minutes for an Uber/Lyft driver while in LA.

MidAtlantic

You are right.

Anybody can drive with Uber, although there are a few minimum requirements:

Be at least 21 years of age
Have at least one year of driving experience in the U.S. (3 years if you are under 23 years old)
Have a valid U.S. driver’s license
Use an eligible 4-door vehicle

Pulaski

Which must be fairly new (age varies by city), and which makes it even more expensive to become an Uber driver if that is your sole income. If all you would otherwise need is a runabout, costing say $8,000, but that to drive for Uber you need a sedan or SUV no more than, say, five years old, then that might cost you $15,000. So you will need, or have to finance, an additional $7,000 just to drive for Uber, at a minimum that is going to mean over $100/mth (finance cost), just to own an Uber-eligibke vehicle.

Ideally you should also be accumulating savings to prepare for when your Uber vehicle ages-out, though it seems unlikely that anyone driving for Uber is accumulating $,000's of cash savings!

BenK91

Just read your post again - there is no way in hell $50k a year is sufficient to live in LA.

I was looking at an apartment in Burbank - pretty nice area but a crappy apartment by all accounts and they still wanted well over $2000 a month.

Sales tax in CA is ridiculous (I messed up and got my Apple Watch in California and it added a pretty significant amount to the total).

It's a fantastic place to be though, so costs could be justified if that's what you're looking for in a place to live.

danj26

Thanks for the advice Tom appreciate it. I’m resilient I would say - NC I’m going to guess North Carolina? Do you miss the UK? What is it that draws you to the US? Sorry I did mean ‘discover’ and will follow you in terms path. The correct term I think is ‘secured credit card’. Discover and, for example, capitalone offer these options for people who are bad/building credit - is it beneficial to have more than one secure credit card in regards to building good credit? Your calculation Re tax on income 60% after tax, is that right? That seems very high! Thanks, Daniel.

danj26

That would be my own income. My girlfriend is a recent graduate so is around the €30-35kpa currenrly. Combined we are looking at $80-85kpa mark. Appreciate we won’t be living in Beverly Hills but as a couple are we able to live in a decent part of LA comfortably? Very subjective I know but if you know LA expense I would be very grateful for a response!

Thanks, Daniel.

danj26

Annoyingly she is a recent graduated student and so I understand her credit score is ‘limited’ as a result she is having problems with securing credit. Thank you though if she’s able to establish good credit before I arrive then a joint account could be an option! Are you sure my alien/expat US credit score won’t effect a joint credit application? Assuming hers was great and mine was nonexistent? Thanks, Daniel.

Noorah101

$85K for a couple can get you started, I think. I'm only familiar with West Hollywood area, which in my opinion is very expensive. My husband was working there and had rented a very old, very tiny, 1-bed 1-bath apartment for about $2K/month.

I assume you'll be coming to the USA on one of the marriage based visas?

Rene

Noorah101

Your UK credit score will not be taken into account at all.

Rene