Establishing credit score in US for Canadians

[jazzly 3]

I am looking for advice on establishing credit in the US for the new immigrant from Canada. I have an excellent credit history in Canada. But I am told that I will have to start from scratch. All of my banking is with TD bank, which has purchased couple of banks on East coast and have branches now from Maine to Florida. I am moving to Michigan where TD is not present. I have an option to convert my 7 year old USD account in TD into TD Borderless USD account, which has several benefits.

Will a Borderless account help me establish credit in US before I move? What are my options?

[Inky 1,110]

Have your spouse add you to their credit card or get a credit card with capital one that has a very low balance on it to start off.

When my husband added me to his capital one credit card I instantly had 6 years of good credit. Not long after that they sent me an application for my own card which I now have.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I am looking for advice on establishing credit in the US for the new immigrant from Canada. I have an excellent credit history in Canada. But I am told that I will have to start from scratch. All of my banking is with TD bank, which has purchased couple of banks on East coast and have branches now from Maine to Florida. I am moving to Michigan where TD is not present. I have an option to convert my 7 year old USD account in TD into TD Borderless USD account, which has several benefits.

Will a Borderless account help me establish credit in US before I move? What are my options?

Search the Cdn forum for 'credit' and you'll find a boat-load of threads on this very item. Some have been lucky enough to piggy back on the spouses credit rating, others have not, others have found lenders who are willing to take your Cdn history into account. There is no hard and fast rule and the institutions make the choice.

A borderless account won't establish credit history unless they report to the US credit bureaus which is doubtful (Experien, Equifax and Transunion). To be clear as well - the US versions of these companies are not linked to teh Cdn equivalents from what we've seen.

Yes - this move has screwed a few of us and starting from scratch stinks but can't be helped

[varming 2]

I am looking for advice on establishing credit in the US for the new immigrant from Canada. I have an excellent credit history in Canada. But I am told that I will have to start from scratch. All of my banking is with TD bank, which has purchased couple of banks on East coast and have branches now from Maine to Florida. I am moving to Michigan where TD is not present. I have an option to convert my 7 year old USD account in TD into TD Borderless USD account, which has several benefits.

Will a Borderless account help me establish credit in US before I move? What are my options?

If you happen to have an American Express in Canada then you can move that account to the US. See http://www.americanexpress.com/global-card-transfers/united-states.html . This will get your credit history started very quickly.

[jazzly 3]

I do have two Amex, two MC and a Visa, beside Sears and other departmental cards.

I will check out your link. Thanks.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I went TD Borderless as well when I moved here and still maintain that account, but no, it does not count in regards to establishing a credit rating in the US. Transferring your American Express accounts to the US will offer the best route towards getting any of your Canadian credit to be considered in the US. The Visa, MC and store accounts don't transfer. You may also wish to get hard copy print outs of your Canadian credit scores before you leave. It may provide an extra bonus when applying for credit in the US to offer a print out since it is unlikely a US provider will check - but with a print out in hand, they just may take the trouble, especially if your credit is good in Canada. There are no guarantees but it certainly won't hurt.

I had to re-establish my credit rating by piggy backing on my husband's accounts and we also took out a joint car loan shortly after I arrived which gave me a start on building up my own US credit rating.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I had a somewhat rougher time (if you search under me you may find my trials and tribulations well documented) . Despite ebing added to my husband's cards, it did not report towards my US credit history. Because I ahd no history when we bought our first house I had no credit and thus we chose not to put my name on the mortgage. My husband has great credit so teh rate was better without me.

So I sought to establish credit by applying for a Target card, they turned me down flat out due to lack of credit history. I didn't want to try for too many cards because that looks bad on your credit history as well. I ended up getting a 'secured' credit card with a $300 limit which I would use each month and then pay off each month. That started the ball rolling and then a year later I was able to get a normal credit card and cancel the secured card for good. I still don;t have a particularly high limit on my CC but that is ok for now. We recen tly bought a new car and the car loan is in our joint names so that is also reporting towards my credit history as well.

I was fairly PO'd back then because my credit back in Canada was excellenet and I had a CC with a $25k limit, I was no slouch I was most certainly not going to have my husband co-sign for things...I felt that was too old fashioned and 1950's

[CentaursLady 4]

My experience was a little lucky, and this may help for some. As a canadian, you can (hopefully still, was a couple years ago) easily get a Macy's card. They accept canadians (specially in Hawaii with all the snowbirds) with canadian social insurance card. Then when I got my SS #, i had them tranfer my account to my SS# number which started credit history right away. I had that one for about 6 months, then was able to get a Visa with about a thousand limit. Now after a few years, my credit rating is close to 800. Which is great. That will help when I need to get a car here.

I would call Macys and ask them if that still applies since you can still use your canadian credit to start.

[Spoom 8]

I got really lucky; our mortgage broker accepted my (great) Canadian credit history at face value, while I've never had so much as a US credit card. I figure the mortgage should be good for building US credit.

Did I mention we bought a house? We bought a house.

[ScooterMac 2]

I got really lucky; our mortgage broker accepted my (great) Canadian credit history at face value, while I've never had so much as a US credit card. I figure the mortgage should be good for building US credit.

Did I mention we bought a house? We bought a house.

You should also mention that other mortgage brokers you spoke to were completely flabbergasted by what to do with your (Canadian) credit and offered to give us a loan based on my income/credit alone (which wasn't going to get us anywhere). Our realtor was great at helping us find a mortgage company who would work with our situation.

Edited March 16, 2012 by ScooterMac

[Spoom 8]

You should also mention that other mortgage brokers you spoke to were completely flabbergasted by what to do with your (Canadian) credit and offered to give us a loan based on my income/credit alone (which wasn't going to get us anywhere). Our realtor was great at helping us find a mortgage company who would work with our situation.

Yeah, PNC sucked in that regard (which was weird because they're awesome for personal banking). They weren't even going to count my income in the calculations because I didn't have their minimum of, I think it was four(!) US trade lines of credit. Union National has so far been great though. Hopefully that doesn't change once we're fully signed to the mortgage

[dukeandduchess 141]

I was just discussing this with my fiance last night at dinner and my future step-FIL said they can import credit history from anywhere, which completely contradicts most things said here. I think he was being defensive because I said to add me to my fiance's credit card (even though I wouldn't use it)... Sigh.

[SapphireDreams 71]

I was just discussing this with my fiance last night at dinner and my future step-FIL said they can import credit history from anywhere, which completely contradicts most things said here. I think he was being defensive because I said to add me to my fiance's credit card (even though I wouldn't use it)... Sigh.

I think the thing is that yes they can import it from anywhere, but it depends on if they are WILLING to do it and how much clout they actually put into it.

My co-worker is trying to buy a house right now and from what I'm learning from her, getting a mortgage is extremely complicated and NOTHING is for sure until it's finalized in writing and signed on the dotted line. She said every mortgage broker just tells you want you want to hear, but when it actually comes time to give you the money there are a lot of last minute things that will just "pop up" that they "forgot to mention".

[dukeandduchess 141]

I think the thing is that yes they can import it from anywhere, but it depends on if they are WILLING to do it and how much clout they actually put into it.

My co-worker is trying to buy a house right now and from what I'm learning from her, getting a mortgage is extremely complicated and NOTHING is for sure until it's finalized in writing and signed on the dotted line. She said every mortgage broker just tells you want you want to hear, but when it actually comes time to give you the money there are a lot of last minute things that will just "pop up" that they "forgot to mention".

Yeah I figured it was better to rely on what I read here. I knew they *could* import it but the truth is I think it takes them too much time and/or money.

[varming 2]

Yeah I figured it was better to rely on what I read here. I knew they *could* import it but the truth is I think it takes them too much time and/or money.

With the Amex Global transfer you can jump start you new US credit history. If you have had amex products since year X/Y in Canada then your new US line of credit will report "date opened X/Y". This essentially backdates your credit history.

If you currently don't have a Canadian amex, then I can only recommend that you get one such that you can perform the move when you get your US ssn.