Moved Back to America after 22 years abroad

Anonymous · ‎10-17-2019

Hi guy, just joined the forum. So my story is I've lived outside of America for 22 years and have just moved back in August 2019. So in May 2019, when I knew I was moving back to the US, I opened a checking account and a secured credit card ($200 USD) both with Discover. As you can imagine with a 200 USD limit my utilisation was quite high as I can easily spend 200+ in a single day. So I thought let's try to rebuild and increase my available credit with a mix of account types. My first application/query was for a car loan, which I did not accept as the interest was prohibitively high. My second inquiry was for a Capital One Platinum for which surprisingly I was approved for a $500 limit unsecured! My third application was for Capital one quicksilver, which I was also approved for $500. My final app was for the Target Red card and surprisingly I was approved for a $200 limit. I've now decided to stop there as I now feel I have an available credit limit that is respectable for someone building credit from zero, and it will be much easier to keep my utilisation low. So my question is (as someone who has lived most of his adult life outside of the US)...What are these banks using for checking my credit? I have not been back in America long enough to build up enough history to even have a FICO score. I can see a TransUnion score of 666 and repayment records for Discover for July and August but September is not showing yet. Is it normal to get this many approvals with no credit history?

hawkins · ‎10-18-2019

Welcome home. As to your question the cards you have yes it’s fairly normal. Your scores will rise fast. Just watch the inquirys and keep UTI in check as well as let things age past a year and you will get all sorts of stuff. Best of luck to you.

Remedios · ‎10-18-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi guy, just joined the forum. So my story is I've lived outside of America for 22 years and have just moved back in August 2019. So in May 2019, when I knew I was moving back to the US, I opened a checking account and a secured credit card ($200 USD) both with Discover. As you can imagine with a 200 USD limit my utilisation was quite high as I can easily spend 200+ in a single day. So I thought let's try to rebuild and increase my available credit with a mix of account types. My first application/query was for a car loan, which I did not accept as the interest was prohibitively high. My second inquiry was for a Capital One Platinum for which surprisingly I was approved for a $500 limit unsecured! My third application was for Capital one quicksilver, which I was also approved for $500. My final app was for the Target Red card and surprisingly I was approved for a $200 limit. I've now decided to stop there as I now feel I have an available credit limit that is respectable for someone building credit from zero, and it will be much easier to keep my utilisation low. So my question is (as someone who has lived most of his adult life outside of the US)...What are these banks using for checking my credit? I have not been back in America long enough to build up enough history to even have a FICO score. I can see a TransUnion score of 666 and repayment records for Discover for July and August but September is not showing yet. Is it normal to get this many approvals with no credit history?

Yes, because you got secured card, couple of starter cards and store card. That can be done in one day

Now a different question would be, should it be done, and the answer is no (according to me, but i have some strong opinions)

Disco is a good card, it will eventually graduate and you'll probably even get an increase on it

Capital one starter cards usually do not go anywhere for the most people. While there are some exceptions, I would not expect too much. You'll end up closing them because you'll get tired of paying every other day and giving them spend. It's just how it works.

That's fine, because in time, you'll be able to qualify for bigger and better things.

Target is a good card if you do enough shopping there. If you dont, it's a waste of application.

Best thing you can do for yourself now credit wise, is do nothing for about a year. Let your accounts age, build payment history and wait. If you continue applying, you'll end up with other toy limits and you'll run into various "rules" that lenders have as far as how many cards they want to see opened before they will issue you one of their own.

So, just sit tight and be patient. You need time more than you need additional cards.

kudosalert · ‎10-25-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi guy, just joined the forum. So my story is I've lived outside of America for 22 years and have just moved back in August 2019. So in May 2019, when I knew I was moving back to the US, I opened a checking account and a secured credit card ($200 USD) both with Discover. As you can imagine with a 200 USD limit my utilisation was quite high as I can easily spend 200+ in a single day. So I thought let's try to rebuild and increase my available credit with a mix of account types. My first application/query was for a car loan, which I did not accept as the interest was prohibitively high. My second inquiry was for a Capital One Platinum for which surprisingly I was approved for a $500 limit unsecured! My third application was for Capital one quicksilver, which I was also approved for $500. My final app was for the Target Red card and surprisingly I was approved for a $200 limit. I've now decided to stop there as I now feel I have an available credit limit that is respectable for someone building credit from zero, and it will be much easier to keep my utilisation low. So my question is (as someone who has lived most of his adult life outside of the US)...What are these banks using for checking my credit? I have not been back in America long enough to build up enough history to even have a FICO score. I can see a TransUnion score of 666 and repayment records for Discover for July and August but September is not showing yet. Is it normal to get this many approvals with no credit history?

yikes 4 new cards. as someone who lives most of the time abroad and only starting to build credit again after 15 years' absence, i know what you are going through. without a credit history (at least a recent one), it's common for lenders to throw those sort of starting limits at you. with a total of $1400 in credit from 4 cards, you are at a better situation than me when i started in terms of letting utilization get too high. i started with a $1000 secured card w/ BOA. for the first 8 months, i only put about $200 on the card each month. 9 months in i asked for my secured card to be graduated and was approved. tried to PC that now unsecured card (still same limit) to another card with no AF but was denied so i just applied for the no AF card (reason was i'm looking at the Chase cards and didnt want too many low limit cards eating up my 5/24). my next card was the Amex Hilton Surpass. 5k SL, after 62 days asked for the 3x CLI and got it approved to 15k. i'm taking it pretty slow with my applications. basically trolling the crap out of this forum and others to "window shop" for my next application.

the wealth of info available now versus 19 years ago when i got my first Amex is amazing. have fun and take it easy with the apps.

In my wallet:

In my desk: