Building my Credit Score

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

2 minutes ago, Roy&Chanel said:

What's a good secured card to recommend? CapitalOne?

 

 

I only have experience with BofA (for secured credit) where I also opened my account with no problem the 2nd day in the country and applied for the secured credit card - also with no problem. So I can really only recommend them, also they report to all three bureaus.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Suss&Camm

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

2 minutes ago, BenjaminKeating said:

DO NOT USE THESE.

 

Numerous people have actually damaged their credit score by using these and bankers at my bank and my wife's bank have both said these are the worst way possible to build credit.

 

You've also damaged your credit score slightly by applying for numerous cards and getting rejected.

 

I believe it knocks 5 points off your FICO score every time you apply.

It can knock off even more when the history is short. I've seen up to 20-30 points in forums.

[Roy&Chanel 109]

1 minute ago, Suss&Camm said:

I only have experience with BofA (for secured credit) where I also opened my account with no problem the 2nd day in the country and applied for the secured credit card - also with no problem. So I can really only recommend them, also they report to all three bureaus.

Thanks, I'm going to check out BofA tomorrow.

They rejected me when I tried to open my own account though.

Hopefully this time it will be ok.

Thanks alot for your help! U sure did alot of research!

I'll ask u more next time if I need help

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

Just now, Roy&Chanel said:

Thanks, I'm going to check out BofA tomorrow.

They rejected me when I tried to open my own account though.

Hopefully this time it will be ok.

Thanks alot for your help! U sure did alot of research!

I'll ask u more next time if I need help

Did they say why? I've actually never heard of that. I mean I believe you might need to deposit some money into the account...but other than that.. I can't see a reason.

[Roy&Chanel 109]

4 minutes ago, BenjaminKeating said:

DO NOT USE THESE.

 

Numerous people have actually damaged their credit score by using these and bankers at my bank and my wife's bank have both said these are the worst way possible to build credit.

 

You've also damaged your credit score slightly by applying for numerous cards and getting rejected.

 

I believe it knocks 5 points off your FICO score every time you apply.

THAT EXPLAINS WHY OUR FICO dropped so much!

It didn't drop 5 points, I'm pretty sure it was more than 20!

I remembered I asked my husband why did our score dropped so much!

We're trying to build it back up again. We had around 760+

Now that explains!

[Ulrica&Jesse 39]

Edited March 27, 2017 by Ulrica&Jesse

[Roy&Chanel 109]

1 minute ago, Suss&Camm said:

Did they say why? I've actually never heard of that. I mean I believe you might need to deposit some money into the account...but other than that.. I can't see a reason.

Yes, I went to Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA to inquire on opening a bank account of my own. They all said that I have no income. I tried it when I arrived on 2nd day and months ago.

I actually did offer to deposit a sum of money but was rejected.(Im not sure what's considered a good amount to banks) This is why till date, I am not able to have an account of my own here in Georgia. I'll just apply for secured card tomorrow.

 

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

4 minutes ago, Roy&Chanel said:

Yes, I went to Chase, Wells Fargo, BofA to inquire on opening a bank account of my own. They all said that I have no income. I tried it when I arrived on 2nd day and months ago.

I actually did offer to deposit a sum of money but was rejected.(Im not sure what's considered a good amount to banks) This is why till date, I am not able to have an account of my own here in Georgia. I'll just apply for secured card tomorrow.

 

That's strange. I have no income. I mean, I had income before moving, but not since. I opened a checkings and a savings. Here are the requirements for a checking at BofA

https://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/checking/checking-accounts/

Edited March 27, 2017 by Suss&Camm

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

Basically minimum deposit is $25 to open, but if that's all you put then you will pay a monthly fee of $12. 

You can have a fee of $0 if you either:

1. have a qualifying direct deposit of $250 or more (for which you'd need a job ofc) or;

2. keep the balance above $1,500

 

so.. I don't see why they would have rejected you based on that.

Edited March 27, 2017 by Suss&Camm

[Roy&Chanel 109]

Just now, Suss&Camm said:

That's strange. I have no income. I mean, I had income before moving, but not since. I opened a checkings and a savings. Here are the requirements for a checking at BofA

https://www.bankofamerica.com/deposits/checking/checking-accounts/

Precisely, I find it really weird too. But I went to ask 3 banks and they all said the same thing that I have no income.

When I first arrived in US, they don't even allow me to include my name into my husband's accounts, saying that there is not enough of residence proof. At first I deposited all the money that I brought to US into my husband's bank account, waited for SSN, have my husband to include my name in all utility bills and went to bank to include my name in his accounts.

Just around April last year when I adjusted, I realized that our savings account has been deducted a sum of money (about 90 dollars) over the months since November. So I went to the banks, asked them why are there deductions from our accounts, they said its "federal withhold" because of my foreign status. So I told them that I have my green card and I did updated the banks right away when I get my green card. After much disputes, they stopped deducting money from our accounts, however I'm not able to get my refunds back till date. And I give up on that after trying to dispute for sometime. 

I'm going to just try on getting secured card for now till I get a job.

[BenjaminKeating 114]

45 minutes ago, Suss&Camm said:

It can knock off even more when the history is short. I've seen up to 20-30 points in forums.

Oh wow, I didn't know that. I was told 5 points but that's crazy! 

 

The minute those mailers land in our mailbox we put them straight in the trash.

[Suss&Camm 2,213]

Just now, BenjaminKeating said:

Oh wow, I didn't know that. I was told 5 points but that's crazy! 

 

The minute those mailers land in our mailbox we put them straight in the trash.

Someone here on VJ told me that you can actually opt out. You won't get em and it supposedly should help your score... but I haven't reseached it any further.

[SachaAndIain 10]

I have no idea why there are so many people in this thread saying that getting added as an authorized user/additional cardholder is a bad idea, or that it is less effective than getting a secured credit card. That's complete bunk. Credit card piggybacking is very well established and (provided it's legitimate) will get you a seriously high credit score in about six months. When I moved here, my wife had a good credit score (from being an authorized user on her parents cards). She opened credit cards with me as an additional cardholder with Amex and CapitalOne. We used the amex for gas and groceries (3%cashback) and the capitalone for everything else (1.5% cashback). We pump all our purchases through the cards, and always pay them off in time, so there's never any interest charged. Within six months we were both up over 750 credit scores.

 

Meanwhile, open a http://CreditKarma.com account. Look at your report regularly and learn what the markers are - age of credit, credit utilisation, number of accounts, total credit, etc. Work on improving each of these numbers. For us, opening another couple of cards would have probably helped, but I can't be arsed keeping track of that many accounts to pay off.

 

https://www.thebalance.com/credit-card-piggybacking-and-impact-to-credit-scores-960197

[NYCruiser 423]

What we found is the initial SS number was a restricted on (ie the ones they give to Students, G1 holders etc..) We have a huge problem getting a car least together. We had to show them the Green Card, etc to make them believe we are genuine. We then went to the SS office to remove the 'Not Valid without DHS Authorization' note on the front. After that was done, the credit file was unlocked. 

[jostermacedo 54]

3 hours ago, mallafri76 said:

That depends on each individual circumstance. I was able to secure my own auto loan with BOFA after being in the country for a month. I also secured my own mortgage with BOFA after being in the country for nine months. 

 

OP, it'll take roughly six months until you have a credit score. I built mine through;

 

- creditcard with my bank

- auto loan with my bank

- store creditcards

- American Express creditcard

- Paying off my creditcards in full every month

- Not utilizing more than 30% on each credit card 

Amex and Discover like people with a thin credit files. I recommend to apply for both once the person has a credit score, even if the history is very short. They may give a very small limit, but they have a good history of increasing credit limits without hard inquiries on your credit report.