Hi All,
I have been reading the forum for a few months, but this is my first post. I would like to thank you all for everything I have learned about building credit history and how to select good CCs.
I immigrated to the US in July, but since the immigrant visa process took a lot of time, I was planning our move (myself, wife and two children) for a couple years. In late 2013 I opened our US bank account with HSBC. Being a HSBC client in Brazil for many years, they included in their services the opening of international accounts for free. No complaints from me... Account opened, debit cards received, but no CC so far. A few months later (around March 2014) I asked for a CC. They gave me a Mastercard with 18K limit.
We arrived in the US in July 2015 and I started to read how to build my credit. I had to buy our car paying 100% in cash and I had to find someone to cosign my rent (I had a friend who immigrated to the US a decade ago and he offered to cosign. A real friend!), so now I understood how important a good credit score is.
After receiving my SSN, I applied for a secured Capital One CC, but it was denied. No sufficient credit history (of course!) So, I decided to wait a little. In the meantime I filled the W9 and sent it to HSBC. A little later I learned about CreditKarma and I opened an account, although they informed me I did not have enough history. A couple months later I received a email from them telling me I had an FICO score. To my surprise, HSBC backdated my CC account to March 2014, giving me a AAoA a little above one year and CK reported my FAKO around 720.
I then decided to apply for some CCs and see what would happen. First was BCE: approved for 2K. Then tried Chase Freedom: approved for 7.5K. A couple weeks later a applied for Discover It. I got the 7-10 days message and later I received a call from them. Approved for 1K. A couple weeks ago I applied for the CSP because of the 50K bonus. Approved for 5K. In short: a public thank you to HSBC for backdating my account and allowing me to apply for prime CCs and a thank you all, for showing me a good list of premier CCs.
Thank you!
Joster
HSBC Premier MC: 30K
Amex BCE: 2K
Chase Freedom: 3.5K
CSP: 9K
Discover: 1K
