Banks in the USA

[pnrmbr975 1]

A few months ago and right after marriage, I added my wife to my Wells Fargo savings & checking & credit card accounts as joint/co-owner. That is while her AOS was pending at that time, she came in as a K-1. As soon as she received her GC, we went to another bank (BOA) and opened a new savings account just for her, and the checking account under both our names. We liked for her to start building credit, so we got her a secured credit card while she was unemployed. Now that she has a decent-paying job, and being a permanent resident, can she apply for a regular credit card and cancel the secured one? Will this help her build more credit & "faster"? Will this even make a difference? Honestly, I don't know what to advise my wife. We will be visiting the bank this weekend but we're wondering if someone here can enlighten us sooner than the planned trip to the bank.

We appreciate your answers, thank you.

Edited September 27, 2007 by pnrmbr975

[akatagirl 0]

I think the best way for her to build credit is for you to add her name to your credit cards..I read somewhere (sorry I cannot reference it at the moment where I found this out) that it helps your spouse if you simply add them to your credit cards, if you have any.

[tom&tata 2]

Unless you are paying fee to have the secured card open, why would you want to close it ? With some history of satisfactory credit from that secured that, then you will be able to get unsecured credit card. I went through the secured card route myself. I think BoA gave me back the deposit for the secured card after 9 months I was with them.

Good luck

[TracyTN 237]

A few months ago and right after marriage, I added my wife to my Wells Fargo savings & checking & credit card accounts as joint/co-owner. That is while her AOS was pending at that time, she came in as a K-1. As soon as she received her GC, we went to another bank (BOA) and opened a new savings account just for her, and the checking account under both our names. We liked for her to start building credit, so we got her a secured credit card while she was unemployed. Now that she has a decent-paying job, and being a permanent resident, can she apply for a regular credit card and cancel the secured one? Will this help her build more credit & "faster"? Will this even make a difference? Honestly, I don't know what to advise my wife. We will be visiting the bank this weekend but we're wondering if someone here can enlighten us sooner than the planned trip to the bank.

We appreciate your answers, thank you.

I would go in and see someone at your local BOA branch about changing the secured card to a regular one. Our BOA rep here told me about the secured one as an option for my husband - and said too that we could apply to change that once he had some credit established w/ the secured one (or via whatever other means).

FYI adding them to the USC's existing credit card only helps if the credit will be reported under their SSN. A sometimes 'joint' credit card account does not do that - its simply another card on the USC's account. If you're considering that option, be sure and call your credit card company and tell them specifically what you're wanting to do (build credit in the immigrant's name) and ask what their process would be to get that.

Right now, my hubby is just an additional cardholder on one of my CCs, but we've applied to change that. If it doesn't come through, well, at least we both have the same credit card with our names on them (I suppose immigration would be ok with that as some proof of 'comingling').

Edited September 28, 2007 by TracyTN

[natashenika 0]

I started with secured one as well ($500) after 6 months or so I aplyed for a credit card from Macy's they gave me Macy's visa for $1500) and raised for more later on fter that i opened few more just male shure you won't open it more than once in 6 months

God luck

[Nancy2015 2]

A secured card should be easily converted into an unsecured card if she's been using it responsibly. And they should refund the security deposit.

[rouguewave 7]

A few months ago and right after marriage, I added my wife to my Wells Fargo savings & checking & credit card accounts as joint/co-owner. That is while her AOS was pending at that time, she came in as a K-1. As soon as she received her GC, we went to another bank (BOA) and opened a new savings account just for her, and the checking account under both our names. We liked for her to start building credit, so we got her a secured credit card while she was unemployed. Now that she has a decent-paying job, and being a permanent resident, can she apply for a regular credit card and cancel the secured one? Will this help her build more credit & "faster"? Will this even make a difference? Honestly, I don't know what to advise my wife. We will be visiting the bank this weekend but we're wondering if someone here can enlighten us sooner than the planned trip to the bank.

We appreciate your answers, thank you.

Except for the case of the secured card provider, whether or not she can pick up an unsecured credit card will be up to the unsecured card provider. The "catch 22" is that if you ask a lot of them, they'll check her credit (request a credit report) and multiple credit checks are seen as a "negative" in reporting credit scores. So, if you can get BoA to discuss this with you WITHOUT running a credit check (since you've got multiple accounts) it'd be better. Of course, they might have to run an official "credit check" if you decide to go ahead, but then it'd be a single hit which isn't a problem.

Actually, I don't think there is any difference (for credit reporting purposes) a secured and unsecured credit card, so the point might be moot. BOTH are extending her credit and presumably BOTH are reporting credit activity to the Credit Reporting Agencies. If you were able to get her an unsecured credit card, you might hold onto BOTH (or maybe put the secured one in the drawer and use it only intermittently. Then she'd have 2 cards reporting her ongoing status and adding to her credit history.

Building credit "faster" is a mis-nomer, really. It sounds like you're doing all the right things and now it'll just take time. The longer (time-wise) she keeps her payments current, the better her score will be. Unfortunately (or fortunately actually) it can take several YEARS to build a reputable credit score. How good it is depends on keeping current with payments, watching balances against credit limits, not having too high credit limits (compared to income), and how long you've had a credit history.

I agree with Tracy about adding her to your credit cards (and bank accounts for that matter). Just because they are "Joint" accounts, doesn't mean that they are affecting her credit score (good or bad). If you haven't explicitly asked the service providers (e.g. Wells Fargo and BoA accounts) if they will be reporting her as "Joint" holder to Credit Agencies, then you might want to cycle back and do that. If they say NO, you could consider moving your business elsewhere, opening a seperate account for her, or moving your business elsewhere.

3-4 months from now (like when you think this has been going on for 6-7-?? months) it might be worth requesting copies of her credit reports from the Credit Reporting agencies to see what the situation looks like and to make sure that everyone is doing as they told you they would. It'd be a shame to set this all up and then go a year or more only to find out it wasn't happening.

Here are some informative sites you might want to look at:

http://immigration.about.com/library/weekly/aa022801a.htm

http://immigration.about.com/library/weekly/aa103102.htm

[pnrmbr975 1]

A few months ago and right after marriage, I added my wife to my Wells Fargo savings & checking & credit card accounts as joint/co-owner. That is while her AOS was pending at that time, she came in as a K-1. As soon as she received her GC, we went to another bank (BOA) and opened a new savings account just for her, and the checking account under both our names. We liked for her to start building credit, so we got her a secured credit card while she was unemployed. Now that she has a decent-paying job, and being a permanent resident, can she apply for a regular credit card and cancel the secured one? Will this help her build more credit & "faster"? Will this even make a difference? Honestly, I don't know what to advise my wife. We will be visiting the bank this weekend but we're wondering if someone here can enlighten us sooner than the planned trip to the bank.

We appreciate your answers, thank you.

FYI adding them to the USC's existing credit card only helps if the credit will be reported under their SSN. A sometimes 'joint' credit card account does not do that - its simply another card on the USC's account. If you're considering that option, be sure and call your credit card company and tell them specifically what you're wanting to do (build credit in the immigrant's name) and ask what their process would be to get that.

Very true. We learned this the hard way. We monitored this and with my wife's consistent prodding, we immediately learned that she was not building credit at all. Our credit cards show the same number too. We were a bit alarmed and called the credit card company right away. The Visa CC agent told us that the WF banker signed her up as joint/co-owner but she is not building credit to this date. Somehow the instructions we gave the banker & the Visa CC agent to make things happen for my wife's credit were not realized. This part we totally don't understand. Realizing that it will take us more runarounds and incompetent bankers, we rushed to BOA's aid so the secured Visa CC comes into play now. My wife has been using her BOA secured CC for 2 months since it became active and diligently, has been paying all purchases in full amounts and a week before they are due. I am not sure if this has a direct effect on building credit but she's a conscientious user anyway. We checked again with our personal banker at BOA and inquired if they are reporting this to the corresponding credit bureau (I know, we're getting paranoid and overly diligent) and they are. My wife further instructed the banker & the Visa not to run credit checks at this point (that is outside their norm sched unless there are loans to be made etc) as she wants these scores piling up.

Now that you brought up the issue of credits which must be reported under her SS & name, we will try again to salvage my credit score/history to reflect on her's since I have an excellent credit history. This is getting annoying but we're positive we can still turn things around at the end of the day.

Thanks to everyone for the valuable info you gave us. I am surprised with the answers, very helpful indeed.

Edited September 30, 2007 by pnrmbr975

[pnrmbr975 1]

A few months ago and right after marriage, I added my wife to my Wells Fargo savings & checking & credit card accounts as joint/co-owner. That is while her AOS was pending at that time, she came in as a K-1. As soon as she received her GC, we went to another bank (BOA) and opened a new savings account just for her, and the checking account under both our names. We liked for her to start building credit, so we got her a secured credit card while she was unemployed. Now that she has a decent-paying job, and being a permanent resident, can she apply for a regular credit card and cancel the secured one? Will this help her build more credit & "faster"? Will this even make a difference? Honestly, I don't know what to advise my wife. We will be visiting the bank this weekend but we're wondering if someone here can enlighten us sooner than the planned trip to the bank.

We appreciate your answers, thank you.

Except for the case of the secured card provider, whether or not she can pick up an unsecured credit card will be up to the unsecured card provider. The "catch 22" is that if you ask a lot of them, they'll check her credit (request a credit report) and multiple credit checks are seen as a "negative" in reporting credit scores. So, if you can get BoA to discuss this with you WITHOUT running a credit check (since you've got multiple accounts) it'd be better. Of course, they might have to run an official "credit check" if you decide to go ahead, but then it'd be a single hit which isn't a problem.

Actually, I don't think there is any difference (for credit reporting purposes) a secured and unsecured credit card, so the point might be moot. BOTH are extending her credit and presumably BOTH are reporting credit activity to the Credit Reporting Agencies. If you were able to get her an unsecured credit card, you might hold onto BOTH (or maybe put the secured one in the drawer and use it only intermittently. Then she'd have 2 cards reporting her ongoing status and adding to her credit history.

Building credit "faster" is a mis-nomer, really. It sounds like you're doing all the right things and now it'll just take time. The longer (time-wise) she keeps her payments current, the better her score will be. Unfortunately (or fortunately actually) it can take several YEARS to build a reputable credit score. How good it is depends on keeping current with payments, watching balances against credit limits, not having too high credit limits (compared to income), and how long you've had a credit history.

I agree with Tracy about adding her to your credit cards (and bank accounts for that matter). Just because they are "Joint" accounts, doesn't mean that they are affecting her credit score (good or bad). If you haven't explicitly asked the service providers (e.g. Wells Fargo and BoA accounts) if they will be reporting her as "Joint" holder to Credit Agencies, then you might want to cycle back and do that. If they say NO, you could consider moving your business elsewhere, opening a seperate account for her, or moving your business elsewhere.

3-4 months from now (like when you think this has been going on for 6-7-?? months) it might be worth requesting copies of her credit reports from the Credit Reporting agencies to see what the situation looks like and to make sure that everyone is doing as they told you they would. It'd be a shame to set this all up and then go a year or more only to find out it wasn't happening.

Here are some informative sites you might want to look at:

http://immigration.about.com/library/weekly/aa022801a.htm

http://immigration.about.com/library/weekly/aa103102.htm

We appreciate all the information, thank you. You've been so helpful and also everyone who replied to this post.

[pnrmbr975 1]

Just an update, this week my wife started receiving junk mails, all pre-approved credit card applications in several banks. She's happy that she's existing in the credit bureau! She also was approved for a Macy's credit card not too long ago, though with a low limit of $1000. Not bad, so taking the secured credit card route was a good choice after all.

She also asked the cellphone company to which we're both at to charge all future bills to her name alone and SSN. They did a check with her credit history over the phone and she was approved. She accepted the terms of agreement and liability. Today we received the notice of transfer. We don't know how much this will impact her credit score but we're crossing our fingers this will all turn out to be highly beneficial to her existing credit.

I am glad that my wife finally feels home, after gruelling months of homesickness and feeling alienated. Work sure is helping her adjust than otherwise. She was able to buy us new furnitures and is now planning her first major purchase on the succeeding months (she wants to beat wintertime and before it gets too cold for her), her own car.

To those who are still struggling to life here in the US, hang in there! My wife's words, there is really light at the end of the tunnel.

Edited October 19, 2007 by pnrmbr975