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How to establish credit as an immigrant
This article is about establishing credit. I learned it the hard
way.
Spring 1997. I had moved from Germany to the USA around
Christmas and enjoyed my first Southern Californian year. While
I browsed the www, I saw some ads for credit cards, clicked on
them and was thrilled by the nice designs. They were issued by
First USA and I was given a choice of nice pictures of them. I
saw one with a nice winter landscape and wanted to have it.
It was so easy.. type in social security # .. little did I know
what I started ...
Nothing happened and a week later I saw a pretty card that
featured motives from the business world, looked cool, so
applied for that one too.
A few weeks went by and I got two letters saying something like
"insufficient credit history".
I did not really need such a card, because I still had a
Mastercard issued by my bank in Germany. The inconvenience of
that card is that they charge me 1% on all expenses made in a
foreign currency and I have to pay it off from my account back
in Germany.
After getting those two letters, my sports spirit came out, I
went on the web again and had no problem applying again :-)
Another letter came soon.
What had I done wrong? I did not understand it. I had lived in
Germany financially stable and was used.. umm.. to be given a
chance. I knew someone in San Diego who had never had a job in
the entire life but qualified for a card by their bank. I did
own a home in Germany with rental income, I never had had any
problems with banks before.
So I asked my friend who worked back then in a collecting agency
(she has her own finance brokerage business now). She yelled at
me 'how could you be so stupid???'.
* I had my address for 3 months only
* I had my job for 3 months only
* there was no record what I had done before and where I lived
before
* I had applied for several cards within short time
'In other words', she told me, 'everything is wrong
with you. You are bad credit. Yuck, will I catch that over the
phone line?'
What is important?
* Stability (same job and address over years)
Difficult for immigrants.
* Regular payments towards existing creditors
Well, I had none. My 4 successful phone bill payments did not
count. Since nobody would lend me money, I figured, how could I
have creditors?
My friend recommended me to get a Target (department store) card
and wait before I reapplied for a regular credit card.
I followed her advice and Target indeed qualified me for a $200
line. I forgot about the cards for a few months, since I was
doing fine without one. I used my
ATM card all the time.. no
problems.
More than half a year later I wanted to purchase airline tickets
online and was to cheap to give my German bank that 1% fee for
currency exchange. So I re-applied... did not work. My friend
had not told me that I actually had to use that department store
card . So here comes my big wisdom of 1997:
* You need to BORROW FIRST to be respected by a bank
My friend then told me to get a Secured credit card
I did this with my local credit union. They agreed with my
friend's statements that this would help me build credit. I
deposited $500 and got a credit line of $500. My friend told me
about secured cards that have a 1:2 or a 1:3 ratio. (1:3 means
that if you deposit $500, your credit line is $1500.)
I did not really care that much and used the card frequently.
Less than a year later, I applied for an unsecured card (www
again) and got approved.
End of story.
Here is some common sense
* do not bounce checks
* do not make late payments (phone, utilities). They will
report if you are a bad customer, but they will not report, if
you are a good customer.
* do not apply for credit frequently. It makes you look
desperate. This includes applications at x.com. Basically
everybody who requests your social security number is suspicious.
* do purchase things on payments.
I hate this advice! Upon arrival in California, I had bought a
12-year old car and paid cash. Big mistake. Buying a car is a
good way to get a creditor.
* Know that Discover card is useless to build credit.
Like utilities, they will report to the agency only the bad
customers but not the good ones.
A list of creditors for the beginner
* secured credit card - this worked best for me. It has a real
value.
* department store card
no deposit needed, limited use. (I did not visit that store very
often)
* gasoline charge cards
easier to get than real credit cards and useful.
* buy your car on payments
I don't know whether that dealer would have sold me on payments,
but for immigrants who need a car anyway, it's worth a try.
Good luck!
About the author:
Mr. Tiemann was born and grew up in Western Germany, where he
got a masters degree in Computer Science in 1991. In 1996 Mr.
Tiemann moved to Silicon Valley to the roots of the internet
revolution . This article reflects his personal experience as an
immigrant with America financial system. You can read more of
his articles on Personal Finances at his web site:
http://www.delphifaq.com/outside_the_cube_finances.htm
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