My wife and I are establishing ourselves back here in the US. She now has a good job, and we have a steady place to live, etc. etc.
While we are in no rush to get her a credit card, she will need a credit history for things that might arise in the foreseeable future. The problem is, she’s gotten denied for the few credit cards she’s applied for because, well, she doesn’t have a credit history.
She can’t get a credit card because she doesn’t have a credit history, and she doesn’t have a credit history because she doesn’t have a credit card.
What should be doing to remedy this? Is it just that the credit cards she’s applying for are too good? Is there a beginners credit card?
This is frustrating, too, because it seems like not having a credit card (and, thus, no debt) should be a good thing.
Finally, I have a credit card and good credit. Is there a way for me to help?
Since she’s working, is there a credit union at her place of employment? I understand those can be less picky (after all, the fact that you work there is somewhat of a guarantee).
This is how we fixed my trashed credit. My husband added me to his and I built up my credit rating and now I have excellent credit and can get it on my own. Woohoo.
Credit unions are indeed more willing to help out their members with such things than banks. She might see if she can get a secured credit card, where she deposits some money into a savings account with the institution as security for the credit card. The amount of her deposit would be her credit limit. After a few months of positive payment history they may be willing to give her a regular credit card.
This works. Worked for Kalhoun. I’ve also done it to help out my brother - I put him on my credit card and his score went up tons since I use my credit card a lot and also pay it off.
Another thing you can do, which my brother and I did, is get a car loan under your name with her name on it as well. In our case, we both bought cars using our dad’s fabulous credit scores, with me/bro as co-signers on the loans. We paid our respective loan payments ourselves (the bank could give a shit who sends in the payments) and the positive credit info went on our credit reports and dad’s. It worked out well for our family because us kids were much more scared to get a ding from dad than a ding on our credit reports
I stopped in to suggest a secured card as well - that was step one of how we re-established my husband’s credit history some 20 years ago. After about a year we applied for a non-secured card with a fairly small available balance and worked out from there.
You might stop by a college campus and seeing if there are any apps in the student center or dorm areas. Those cards are tailored for people with no history at all.
Take out a small loan in her name with you as the cosigner, put the money in an account and never use it and make every payment. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Remortgage. Have her as a co-signer. Her lack of credit won’t drag down your score (i.e., won’t cause you not to get the loan). That’ll be a huge boost, more than any credit card or small loan.
Absolutely! Even ignoring the credit card thing, she should take advantage of a credit union if there’s one available.
Also - many banks have a secured credit card, where essentially you deposit a certain amount of money and that’s used as security for the credit card (with a credit limit equal to the deposit amount). That can be a good way to get started with building a credit history. Get such a card, use it for a few small purchases, pay it off every month…
(on preview, I see others have also suggested getting a secured card).
The easiest cards to get are gasoline credit cards. Get these first. Then go to Sears, JC Penny and other mid range department stores.
Then use them for a few months. THEN you’re gonna have to buy something and pay it off in time. Using your credit cards and paying them off at the month end is good for you. Credit card companies HATE this, they make no money if you pay it all off each month. Plus it doesn’t show you can handle credit.
So get gas cards, use them a few months and/or the dept store cards then, buy ONE thing worth about $500.00 and pay it off over three or four months. Then you will see the other offers start pouring in.
Gas card, store credit card, and then Visa in that order. She needs her own line of credit in case you die. Credit Union should also be joined for that and other reason.
This was the only way for me to get credit at all when I moved to the US. Excellent credit in Canada, which uses the same credit bureaus, and yet I couldn’t get so much as an Old Navy credit card here. The secured Visa was good enough even though its limit was so low I couldn’t use it to buy tickets to fly home. After a year they got rid of the “secured” part and I’m using it as a regular credit card now.
