Advice on whether to hold on or push forward with improving credit score

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Stumbled upon this site my chance - looks great! and I look forward to contributing in due course too.

I am a UK citizen and moved to the US on a work permit. I wasnt there long (2 months) but managed to get my SSN and checking account with BofA. I havent used my SSN yet.

I am due to go back to the US on a different work permit (one which just works better for me in my situation) but wanted to see if theres a way to start building credit remotely. I have been an AMEX customer in the UK for about 8 years now and have great history with them. I am thinking to move my Amex over to the US (I have the bits of information they want) so that it can reflect on my FICO score. Do you think it's a good idea to do this or just wait ~2 months before I head out to the US again ?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the board.  You can't transfer your credit history from the UK  to here.  What I urge you to do is call Amex and see if they can get you the U.S Amex version of the card you have that reports to all three bureaus.

[Anonymous]

Try and apply for stuff as soon as possible. It takes 6 months of credit history before you even have a credit score. And it takes awhile to build up a score that would be good enough for a good car loan or a mortgage. You're accelerating ALL those things by 2 months if you can get a card now rather than 2 months from now. 

Do the Amex transfer if you can now--you may need that US address. Other people have managed it with a US postal mailbox or some such. Some issuers care that it's your primary address. Others just want any US address. Some might be willing to work with your UK address.

Getting just one card open starts the clock on your oldest account.

See if there are any UK financial institutions that might be willing to help you out -- Barclays? HSBC? I'm Canadian and I was able to get a US card issued by a US bank that had a Canadian parent company. You might be able to do something similar with UK institutions that operate in the US.

[Anonymous]

Amex approved a few hours ago. Thanks for encouraging me to apply!!! Roll on timely payments and good credit.

[Anonymous]

Welcome to the US world of credit! Glad you found this board which will ease your growing a credit profile. Some one on this board will likely be able to help you with credit and banking related questions.