Building credit on a work VISA

[Anonymous]

Hey,

Just wanted to share my story as a person that came to the US on a work visa and had to start from scratch.

July 2018:

- Landed in the US

- Two days after landing opened a BOA checking/saving account and was approved for

  "Cash Rewards" with 1500SL.

- 15 days after openning a bank account got an auto loan/lease with a 400$ per month payment (36 months).

My inital score (Jan 2019) was 731 (TransUnion fico 8).

After the inital score I've started requersting CLI via the web interface for my Cash Rewards card, I now have a 25,300$ limit.

I've always kept utilaztion low (around 2-3%) by paying before closing and at this point the only "debt" I have

is the auto loan with aroudn 8K still remaining there.

So at this point I'm around 1 year in the US and decided I need a travel card so

applied for BOA premium rewards a few days ago and got declined, called reco and was told I don't have enough credit history for that card.

As I didn't want to waste the HP they did for for the card, applied for the Travel Rewards card and was approved immediately with 5000 SL.

So the status right now, 13 months in the US, with TransUnion (fico 8) score of 749 and Experian (fico 8) score of 752.

Hope people will find it useful.  

[gdale6]

Grats on the new Travel card and yeah the Premium card has strict underwriting, try it again after you have a few years of history under your belt. You might be able to get the Chase Sapphire Preffered once you pass 1 year on the cash rewards.

[JR_TX]

Congrats and welcome to the myFICO community! Oh and welcome to the US of A! 

[M_Smart007]

Welcome To myFICO Forums and

[AverageJoesCredit]

Hard work pays

[zerofire]

Typical Bank of America. Start relationship with them and after time goes by they act like a wide eyed puppy that has been told to sit. They jump you with the lick surprise. Make sure you keep the payments on the cards as they can bite if you decide to leave the country without payment in full and are very vengeful if you later want a loan with them.