Hello, I am new to the myFICO forums and would like to introduce myself and ask some questions regarding credit histories.
I have recently moved to the United States from Germany and almost immediately run into problems because I don't have a credit history here. I understand that there is no way to take your history along when you move, but would not have expected that it would be so hard to establish credit. In Germany, when you have no credit, that is considered a good thing, and credit card companies will be very eager to become your first lender. That is probably due to the fact that relatively few Germans have credit cards. I, for my part, have a regular Visa and a MasterCard gold, so I honestly didn't expect any problems.
Naively, I applied for the Costco AmEx, as I became a Costco member, and was rejected. I called them up and CC representative explained to me that I couldn't get that card, but that they had a different card, especially for building credit, that I could apply for. OK, good, I thought, and went ahead and applied for that card and was rejected. So I called AmEx again and was told that they don't offer any cards for people without a FICO score. Sounds kind of discriminatory to me, but at least I learned what the problem was. They told me to get a store or gas card first, for example at Macy's.
So I went to Macy', bought some pants and applied for the store card, but was rejected. At least they gave me 25% off on my purchase.
Next I went to my Bank of America, where I have my checking and savings accounts and applied for a credit card there. I haven't heard from them yet.
After running into all these problems, I did some research, basically finding only one option: get a secured card. But it seems ridiculous to me, in a financially sound position, to pay a bank fees and interest to lend me my own money. Then I came across this forum, and I read...
I actually found some very valuable information here and would like to hear your thoughts on my further course of action. Fortunately, my wife is a US citizen, and after reading several threads here on the forum, my first idea was to become an authorized user on her credit card. But she has lived in Germany for several years and her credit history is not very long, as she never required or used credit (and I thought that was a good thing when we got married 
. My next idea was to become an authorized user on one of my mother-in-law's cc accounts. I don't know how old those are, but I am sure she has at least one that is more then 10 years old and has an excellent history. Fortunately she would agree to do that for me, but I would like to know what exactly to expect first. What would becoming an AU on one of her credit cards do for my (nonexistent) history?
Thank you very much for your input. I am hopeful that the answers to my question will also be of use to others facing the same difficulties.
@Anonymous wrote:Hello, I am new to the myFICO forums and would like to introduce myself and ask some questions regarding credit histories.
I have recently moved to the United States from Germany and almost immediately run into problems because I don't have a credit history here. I understand that there is no way to take your history along when you move, but would not have expected that it would be so hard to establish credit. In Germany, when you have no credit, that is considered a good thing, and credit card companies will be very eager to become your first lender. That is probably due to the fact that relatively few Germans have credit cards. I, for my part, have a regular Visa and a MasterCard gold, so I honestly didn't expect any problems.
Naively, I applied for the Costco AmEx, as I became a Costco member, and was rejected. I called them up and CC representative explained to me that I couldn't get that card, but that they had a different card, especially for building credit, that I could apply for. OK, good, I thought, and went ahead and applied for that card and was rejected. So I called AmEx again and was told that they don't offer any cards for people without a FICO score. Sounds kind of discriminatory to me, but at least I learned what the problem was. They told me to get a store or gas card first, for example at Macy's.
So I went to Macy', bought some pants and applied for the store card, but was rejected. At least they gave me 25% off on my purchase.
Next I went to my Bank of America, where I have my checking and savings accounts and applied for a credit card there. I haven't heard from them yet.
After running into all these problems, I did some research, basically finding only one option: get a secured card. But it seems ridiculous to me, in a financially sound position, to pay a bank fees and interest to lend me my own money. Then I came across this forum, and I read...
I actually found some very valuable information here and would like to hear your thoughts on my further course of action. Fortunately, my wife is a US citizen, and after reading several threads here on the forum, my first idea was to become an authorized user on her credit card. But she has lived in Germany for several years and her credit history is not very long, as she never required or used credit (and I thought that was a good thing when we got married
Thank you very much for your input. I am hopeful that the answers to my question will also be of use to others facing the same difficulties.
I would go secured with citibank, the secured card is like a CD and actually accrues interest. Also be careful of all the inquireis you are getting everytime you apply for a card.
