Joint Credit Cards as Evidence?

[Zachris 5]

We have already sent in our package to remove conditions, so perhaps this question is too little too late for us.

But,

What do people mean by joint credit cards as evidence?

When my wife came to the US she was basically a nobody -- no credit history and therefore a non-person in the US financial system. At the time I looked at applying for some joint credit cards and found that those things generally do not exist any more. I could include her as an authorized user of my credit cards, but doing that does not show up on the credit card statement. So, how could that be evidence?

More importantly, I felt it was important to start a credit history for my wife. We began with a secured credit card. Basically, this is a credit card wherein you provide a deposit and this becomes the basis of your credit line on the card. You want to choose a card that regularly reports to the credit agencies, so that your good behavior can build credit. After two years of this, my wife was able to get a regular credit card with no annual fee and no deposit required. She now is a "somebody" according the the US financial system. I believe that obtaining this credit identity for her was an important step in providing for her should anything happen to me.

So, when I sent in my evidence there were no joint credit cards.

Joint utility bills seems to be a fiction that does not exist for my utility providers. I could have put her name on the telephone account, but that would have cost $60 (essentially the cost of starting a new account). So that did not make financial sense.

Similarly, putting her name on my existing mortgage would have been treated as a re-finance. Again, something that did not make financial sense.

Yes, we bought a car and her name is on the title and the joint car loan. I also have her as beneficiary of all my insurances, investments and retirement accounts. And, she is certainly on my health insurance.

Most importantly, we had a child together. And my wife is the chief alternate in our daughter's educational investment account.

So, I think we have enough financial evidence. I am just wondering about those credit cards.

Do you have credit cards as joint accounts? Or is one person merely an "authorized" user and you are counting that? If you truly have a joint credit card account, what card/bank is it from?

[Abby&Colin 40]

I looked into this as well !! My husband made me an authorized user on his credit card and when we file to remove conditions we will photocopy the cards side by side to prove we have two cards. Since or names are located on the front of the cards they will show proof I've googled and looked on VJ and that's how you can show it. Also that's funny our utility company let us put both our names on the account. Also our debit cards are joint as well we will photocopy those too since our names are on them and our bills have both names on it.

[blooms 63]

I have both joint credit card and savings/checking account. We have Capital *** for the credit card and each monthly statement shows what we spent seperately. Same thing goes for our checking/debit at a credit union.

I also included a letter from the credit union that we have a joint account with them, stating our names, account number, when we opened the account.

For utility bills, we have three service providers and I can add both our names in the account and bills. And one provider told me I cannot have other users in my bill. I guess companies have different policies. Not surprised that you couldn't do it either. Good luck!

Blooms

[Cheezees 1,514]

I was living as a student in the US for 7 years before I meet my USC husband and had applied for and built credit all that time. Then our bank offered us a joint credit account where we are both primary users.

[Laura. 90]

Our Capital One and Barclaycard credit cards show both our names and each person's transactions separately on the statements (despite one of us being an authorized user).

[KayDeeCee 4,896]

Even if the authorized user name does not appear on the statements, you can usually find the authorized user listed in your account information you can access online. You can print that out along with copies of the cards in both names with the same number. Black out all but the last 4, if you don't want to send photocopies of your credit cards intact.

[lucybelle 453]

I'm not sure what it's actually called but we do have "joint" credit cards through my bank. Luckily I have a good history with my bank and we were able to get credit cards from them despite neither of us having credit history. I was living abroad with my husband so I had barely any credit history either!!! Our credit card numbers are different but the bill is mailed to us and has both of our names on it. After a few months with that card we were able to get my husband a beginners credit card with a $500 credit limit. From there we've been able to move him up to getting a much better card with a much higher credit line. In fact, he has more credit cards than I do now!! (Used responsibly of course!)

As far as utility bills, our online bill has both of our names on the address. I'm not sure how that happened, honestly.

He's definitely not on my car loan. There's no way we would have been approved with his non-existent credit history.