My family and I (British) lived in California from 2001 to 2006, but moved back to the UK for personal reasons. We are returning to California in February 2008, this time hopefully for good, but I have a few concerns about my credit.
All the time we were there, we had good credit. We had two checking accounts, both with credit cards, with decent limits, and paid them off regularly. We also had two consecutive car leases during that period, and had no credit-related problems.
When we left, we retained the checking accounts and credit cards, one of them clear, but still had a balance (about 40% of limit) on our MBNA Visa card. We used the accounts (checking and credit) occasionally when visiting.
Unfortunately, I failed to make the regular monthly minimum payment on the MBNA Visa card three times during last year, one of them with a two month delay, although when I paid it was always at least the full outstanding minimum amount.
They did not contact me to complain, but at some point around September, they lowered the limit to just over the balance at the time. I tried to contact them on-line and by phone, but never received responses to my on-line messages, and the person I spoke to on the phone could not tell me anything about their "rating" of my account.
Their on-line service offers the option of requesting a letter describing the credit status of the account, but that can only be sent to the registered address, which I never changed (it is still our last US address, which we left in August 2006).
In November, I liberated some other funds, and paid off the balance completely.
My problem now is how to clarify my credit rating, and hopefully repair any damage done by my missed payments, so that it does not adversely affect us on our return to the US in February, since we will be setting up home again and require some credit, as well as another car lease.
However, I cannot request my FICO score as I do not have a current US address, and (as I described before) the accounts are registered to a mixture of C/O a friends' address and our old address, and I do not wish to move the credit card address to be our friends' address as well, in case it somehow affects THEIR credit rating.
Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks in advance.