Hi everyone, I'm hoping I can enlist your help. I'll preface my story by mentioning that I have been a lurker for a while now. I have read a great deal, but in the end there is soooo much information I'm at a point where I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. My story is as such. I'm a Canadian citizen and I've been attending school in the US for the past couple of years. While the majority of my family on my fatherâ??s side are American citizens, I am not (at least not yet). I have been here legally on a student visa; however because of the visa I have been unable to work, furthermore, because I'm Canadian and relations with the US are "good" I was not required (nor was I able) to obtain a SS#. Apparently other nationalities are issued SS#'s, even if they are not allowed to work (for monitoring purposes perhaps??), while Canadians and perhaps other nations are not. Needless to say it has been quite a "chore" during my time here. I have been fortunate that I have not gone into debt, but that is only because I have no credit available to me to use. While I have had a bank account for the past few years here (w/ the same bank), and have paid rent, tuition and other bills in a timely manner, I have absolutely no history of doing such. A little off base but its pretty funny in that I consistently receive pre-approval notices, I learned a long time ago however that without a SS# it wasn't going to happen, or at least that is what I've been told. Ok, now to the reason for my post. In Nov I married a wonderful woman. While we're still not sure as to our long term plans (living in the US, Canada or elsewhere) I would like to establish a credit history as I now have a SS#. I will be soon starting a job paying a salary of 40K. So here is my question. With the information I have laid before you, and with the collective experiences you have all had. If you had to the opportunity to start from "scratch" and build a credit history what would you do? I understand that it takes time, but for obvious reasons the faster the better. I have looked over the credit cards listed on this site but, fearful of making a wrong decision I have no idea which one to select. Which one is the best w/zero credit? I read somewhere that someone thought a capital one, yet I don't see it listed. I would appreciate any and all advice as I will be using your information as a guideline. Thankx in advance for your help. Zero
I'm going through a similar situation with my wife. She's an american citizen, however, we married when she was fairly young and she has no credit history now. In any case, I've found the following options are available for her. There are companies such as capital one, orchard, and cross country bank that will give an unsecured credit card to almost anyone provided you make somewhere around $18K a year and can provide a phone bill with your current address. This won't work for my wife because she's only working part time and doesn't make the minimum amount, so we're not going this way, but it could be an option for you. The big disadvantage to using one of these companies is that they are quite expensive. You'll be lucky if you get an interest rate or 20%, you'll probably have to pay around $200 in application and acceptance and other fees, plus you'll probably have an annual fee of around $75 and a lot of them are starting to charge monthly fees of like $6. After all that they'll probably give you a total credit line of $300. If you have no other options, this will work for you, but I'd recommend against it. The next option is a secured card. There are some more reputable companies out there like fleet and bank of america that will let you open a savings account with a few hundred dollars in it and then give you a credit card with a credit line that matches your savings account. They usually have a smaller annual fee and no or a very low application fee. The disadvantage to this is that it ties up a lot of money, but at least the money is still yours and not going to the bank. Plus, assuming you have a good payment history, most of these banks will let you convert the secured card to a regular credit card in about a year. Then you'll get your savings account money back and have a year of good credit started. The final option is to get added as an authorized user or a joint account holder on someone else's credit card. This is probably the best option and this is what my wife and I are doing. If you have a friend or relative that really likes you, and also has a credit card in good standing. Preferably a card they've had for a while with no late payments on it, and also not maxed out they can call the credit card company and ask to add you as an authorized user or a joint account holder. Once this happens you will magically get their account history added to your credit report. This way you could go from having no credit at all to having a several year old credit card with excellent payment history. The disadvantage, however, is that if your friend starts missing payments or defaults on the card, then it will reflect on your credit report, and if you're a joint account holder you may be liable for the debt. So be sure you do this with someone you can trust.' HTH, Brett
