I have recently moved to the US, and am noticing it is really difficult to get things done with no credit history. I did manage car finance with a huge deposit, and have applied for a credit card (with a $500 limit!) that I plan to pay in full every month.
Does anyone have any suggestions for building a credit history as quickly as possible? I already plan to buy everything I’d need to buy anyway on the credit card, but does anyone have any other generic advice or experience? The credit score system seems very mysterious to me. I don’t understand how all these insitutions transfer my data around. It is all a bit scary!
Oh, and hi everyone. This will be my first post to the SDMB. I’ve been lurking for quite a while now (both here in the US and back in South Africa). This is definately one of the most interesting message boards - hopefully the $15 subscription will be one of my first aforementioned credit card purchases
Student loans. My credit is decent and I have never charged more than $15 on my credit card. Any I have only charged anything thrice. I hate the idea of debt. It sucks that this country forces you into it when you dont need it.
You’re already doing the most basic things - get a credit card, pay it promptly, get a car loan, pay it promptly. If you think you might need a lot of credit history, you can get a loan from your bank and pay it off immediately. I’ve been told that a cell phone, paid promptly, will help, but it dosen’t appear on my credit report. Ditto rent. (Both of these things will absolutely show up if you don’t pay them, however.)
Things not to do to your credit, according to the credit people:
-Late payment, obviously
-Too much in outstanding balances
-Too low credit limits - you want to be way below your limits
-Too much credit. Don’t apply for more cards than you need - of course, we probably think we “need” more cards than we do. This probably won’t affect you. If you’re getting your score pulled too much, however, it does bring it down.
Every so often, it’s good practice to get your credit report from all three big agencies to make sure there are no errors. My score went up umpteen points when I found out they had a debt on my report that I’d never incurred - I reported it and they cleared it right up.
Here’s the advice I got when I was 18. Go to your bank, and talk to the loan officer. Tell her you want to borrow $1000 to build up a good credit history. Offer to deposit it in the bank until it’s paid off. (When I was 18, it was $500, but that was a long time ago.) Make the payments on time, and keep the records. Then you’re on your way.
Many banks are behind the times, and the loan officer is probably not a she. :rolleyes:
Getting a mortgage won’t be as hard as you think. Most banks have programs designed specifically for foreign nationals.
And yes, our credit system is quite odd. Some people claim it to be intentionally odd. I know that of the thousands of credit scores I’ve looked at (and I mean literally thousands upon thousands), I doubt I’ve seen more than 10 with a score of 800+. Anything higher than the 720-750 range seems to be a fluke more often than not.
What better way for a lending agency to know your ability to pay back the debt on time than to look at your prior history of doing just that? You wouldn’t lend someone $100,000 for a mortgage - or ever $10,000 for a car - based only on their word?
