New in USA, building history strategy

newhis · ‎03-20-2014

Hello all. I've been reading this forums for a couple of months and I'm starting to get some of the information here. I need advise on building credit history.

Here is some information about my situation:

- My wife is in the USA with F1 Visa and I'm with F2 Visa

- She just got a SSN for a CPT she is doing this semester, I got ITIN because I can't get a SSN

- After reading this forum we opened a BoA checking account for my wife and they denied a credit card but offered a secured credit card with limit equal to the deposit. We opened that with $500 a little over a month ago

- She applied for Discover Student and after proving she is enrolled they approved for $500 Discover card

- She applied for citi Student but got denied because she doesn't have a permanent address in the USA (with F1 Visa the permanent address is your home country address)

- I applied for Capital One with the ITIN and got denied for not having credit history

- I opened a savings account with BoA (March) and asked for a secured credit card. The person that helped me was different from my wife. She didn't put the ITIN (I didn't know that you can have a credit card in the USA without SSn or ITIN, even a secured card, only if I knew!) My wife's card is the 321 rewards with $39 AF, mine is regular card with $39 AF and no rewards

- I applied for Discover IT (by phone, online I can't enter ITIN) and explained that I am new in the USA and don't have credit history and only ITIN, I answered all the questions and they say that they revew the app. Next day the called asking for documents, ITIN and address proof. After sending them they told me they can't offer me the 0% intro but a 3% or something like that, if I want it that way. I plan to PIF and report low balance so it doesn't matter right now the 0%. I got approved for $1000.

- I have an account with Chase (checking and savings) since 1997 or so. Always used the debit card to pay everything when we were on vacation. We talked with the person handling our account and tried to apply for a credit card 2 years ago and got denied because no credit history.

Some questions:

- Both of us have BoA and Discover, my cards at $1000 each, wife's at $500. Do I put her as an AU on mine, AU on hers, neither or both?

- I was told that we can CLI my wife secured card by asking to put more money in the secured account. I read here that they do a HP even for that. Is that true? Is it better to keep the account alone and don't try to increase the limit?

- I read here that is a good strategy to have 3 card, we only have 2 each. If you think AU in eachother is good or is better to try for other cards? We don't even have a score and will have to wait 6 months to get one AFAIK

- any other pointers that you can give me?

Thank you very much.

newUser0 · ‎03-20-2014

Welcome to USA! You are doing a good job.

Just curious But, If you came on F2 recently, how did you get Chase accounts from 1997?

newhis · ‎03-20-2014

I'm a long time visitor to the USA. I got married in 1995 and we decided to save some money. Sometimes we had trouble paying with our credit cards (from home) so most of the time we pay our purchases with a Chase debit card.

My wife should finish her graduate studies in May 2015. We don't know what the future hold for us, that's why we want to stablish credit here just in case.

Chris679 · ‎03-21-2014

@newhis wrote:
Hello all. I've been reading this forums for a couple of months and I'm starting to get some of the information here. I need advise on building credit history.

Here is some information about my situation:
- My wife is in the USA with F1 Visa and I'm with F2 Visa
- He just got a SSN for a CPT she is doing this semester, I got ITIN because I can't get a SSN
- After reading this forum we opened a BoA checking account for my wife and they denied a credit card but offered a secured credit card with limit equal to the deposit. We opened that with $500 a little over a month ago
- She applied for Discover Student and after proving she is enrolled they approved for $500 Discover card
- She applied for citi Student but got denied because she doesn't have a permanent address in the USA (with F1 Visa the permanent address is your home country address)
- I applied for Capital One with the ITIN and got denied for not having credit history
- I opened a savings account with BoA (March) and asked for a secured credit card. The person that helped me was different from my wife. She didn't put the ITIN (I didn't know that you can have a credit card in the USA without SSn or ITIN, even a secured card, only if I knew!) My wife's card is the 321 rewards with $39 AF, mine is regular card with $39 AF and no rewards
- I applied for Discover IT (by phone, online I can't enter ITIN) and explained that I am new in the USA and don't have credit history and only ITIN, I answered all the questions and they say that they revew the app. Next day the called asking for documents, ITIN and address proof. After sending them they told me they can't offer me the 0% intro but a 3% or something like that, if I want it that way. I plan to PIF and report low balance so it doesn't matter right now the 0%. I got approved for $1000.
- I have an account with Chase (checking and savings) since 1997 or so. Always used the debit card to pay everything when we were on vacation. We talked with the person handling our account and tried to apply for a credit card 2 years ago and got denied because no credit history.

Some questions:
- Both of us have BoA and Discover, my cards at $1000 each, wife's at $500. Do I put her as an AU on mine, AU on hers, neither or both?
I don't think it will make much difference either way since they are all so new. Part of your credit score it overall utilization though, so the AU accounts would help with that.

- I was told that we can CLI my wife secured card by asking to put more money in the secured account. I read here that they do a HP even for that. Is that true? Is it better to keep the account alone and don't try to increase the limit?
It is within their rights to HP any time you are asking for CLI. Unless you need a higher limit I would just use it and PIF each month and try to get the card unsecured after 6 months to 1 year.

- I read here that is a good strategy to have 3 card, we only have 2 each. If you think AU in eachother is good or is better to try for other cards? We don't even have a score and will have to wait 6 months to get one AFAIK
A thicker file is more appealing to lenders overall but the best thing you can do for now is lay low and use the cards you have responsibily. Its a marathon not a sprint. At the 6 month mark you could probably be approved for Cap One or Discover unsecured.

- any other pointers that you can give me?
Use your cards responsibly, limit your inquiries to a couple per year, use auto pay on all cards.

Thank you very much.

newhis · ‎03-21-2014

Thank you. We'll work with the cards we have.

What we have done or plan to do:

- pay the card before the end of cycle to get it to less than 10%. Wife's BoA just closed the cycle with $31, Discover will close next week, plan to pay to get it down to 20-40.

- pay the balance 5 days before the due date

- right now we selected to receive paper statements, after the first one I'll change that to electronic statements

- I'll try to change my BoA from regular to 321 rewards just like my wife. I read somewhere a number to call, I'll look for it

- Use the rewards to offset the AF in both BoA secured cards, there is 10% bonus for deposit to BoA account

- wait until discover report a FICO score and try to talk with Chase for a card and with BoA to unsecure our cards

Any other things that we should do?

newhis · ‎03-24-2014

@newhis wrote:
- pay the card before the end of cycle to get it to less than 10%.
- I'll try to change my BoA from regular to 321 rewards just like my wife. I read somewhere a number to call, I'll look for it

I didn't need to call, just an online chat and after 2 weeks it shows a new card as cash rewards when I log on to my account. I hope I get the new card this week, they are right about the 2-4 weeks.

I added my wife to my Discover, so she can use her card or my card depending on the day. I told her not to use her card 5 days before statement close, so she can pay the card and not report a big amount and always PIF before due date.

Wife's Discover will close with $26 first cycle. Don't know when will be the due date, this will be her first statement

newhis · ‎03-28-2014

Another question; if family or friend add my wife or me as an AU to one of their credit cards will that help to build credit history for us? Or is better to build the credit with the 2 cards we have (one secured and one unsecured)?

I read that some lenders see AU and don't count that for new credit, but I don't know if that will help to at least get a score sooner.

newhis · ‎04-10-2014

Hello, if there is no problem in this forum, I'll use this thread to put new information in our journey.

Last Monday we went to BofA branch and ask about putting more money into the fully secured cash rewards card for my DW, her limit is $500, I read that many times there is a HP but some times could be SP. She created an account with CK and she can see that indeed there was a HP from BofA that day. Live and lern.

She now has 4 HP, 2 from Discover (one only say Discover the other Discover Fin) same day in Fabruary, 1 from BofA early March (don't know why if she opened the account on early February, and another from BofA to go from $500 to $1000. She applied only for a CITI students card and was denied but there is no HP reported for CITI, strange? In a couple of months we will try to get a car loan.

Her credit history started this February. CK score 662. Discover Fico score N/A (guess she will get one after 6 months). Credit limit reported $2000 (500 BofA, 500 Discover, 1000 as AU from my Discover), guess next month it will say $2500. Util 6% with small reported balance in each card.

I can't get a CK account because they need SSN, I only have ITIN. I wonder how many HP I have. At least 3 but maybe more. Capital One denied, Discover approved and BofA secured card. I'm planning on getting a credit report as soon as my Discover show a score.

Plan for this month, leave a small balance to report only with BofA and PIF both Discover cards before statement close date.

mnavas · ‎04-10-2014

@newhis wrote:
Hello, if there is no problem in this forum, I'll use this thread to put new information in our journey.

Last Monday we went to BofA branch and ask about putting more money into the fully secured cash rewards card for my DW, her limit is $500, I read that many times there is a HP but some times could be SP. She created an account with CK and she can see that indeed there was a HP from BofA that day. Live and lern.

She now has 4 HP, 2 from Discover (one only say Discover the other Discover Fin) same day in Fabruary, 1 from BofA early March (don't know why if she opened the account on early February, and another from BofA to go from $500 to $1000. She applied only for a CITI students card and was denied but there is no HP reported for CITI, strange? In a couple of months we will try to get a car loan.

Her credit history started this February. CK score 662. Discover Fico score N/A (guess she will get one after 6 months). Credit limit reported $2000 (500 BofA, 500 Discover, 1000 as AU from my Discover), guess next month it will say $2500. Util 6% with small reported balance in each card.

I can't get a CK account because they need SSN, I only have ITIN. I wonder how many HP I have. At least 3 but maybe more. Capital One denied, Discover approved and BofA secured card. I'm planning on getting a credit report as soon as my Discover show a score.

Plan for this month, leave a small balance to report only with BofA and PIF both Discover cards before statement close date.

if you only have an ITIN you won't be able to get your credit reports online. The CRAs are not set up to let you pull credit reports online, in fact your ITIN is not even in any of your credit reports..... You can request them by mail but only Experian will provide you one. The other 2 CRAs will request a SSN before they mail your credit files.

newhis · ‎04-10-2014

Thank you mnavas. I think having only an ITIN will limit my credit building process. Can't have a SSN now, maybe in the future.