.
Read about Banks in America for more information.
Tips for getting credit in America
No matter how much money you bring with you from South Africa, no
matter what a great salary you earn in America and your outstanding credit
history – it means nothing here!
Expect to struggle to get credit at least for the first 6 months to a
year.
Before leaving South Africa
Get bank statements especially the last 6 months of your credit card statement, letters from your bank for good conduct of accounts, and a report from a credit bureau.
It may be of little help, but could just be the one thing that gets an
application approved instead of turned down. Plan on bringing your South
African credit cards with you if you can.
Building a credit record in America
The key is small steps. Get credit, even in small amounts whenever you can. After a few months it may be a good idea to get a credit report on yourself to see what is on the report. You can usually get this free when a bank or organization turns you down for credit. They should send you a letter with details.
You’ll need to complete a credit application for everything from electricity to phone to buying a car.
For most of the smaller things, e.g. getting cable TV you can get away
with it if you explain your situation and offer to pay in advance.
Places you can get credit more easily:
Try store cards. The easiest one other South Africans have recommended
to me is a Sears card.
However, I was not approved by Sears. A Store will probably give you a small limit of a couple of
hundred dollars – maybe enough to buy one large item. Take it. Use it to the
full limit and pay on time.
The bank may turn down your credit card application, but try American
Airline’s credit card. It seems like they don’t run such in-depth
credit checks and mine was pretty easy to get. Once again they’ll give
you a small limit and won’t increase it for at least 6 months. Pay
diligently.
Your company may be able to assist you to get a corporate American Express or Diners Club card. Once you have these, you may be able to get a personal card from them. Even without worrying about a corporate card, you can easily apply online with American Express.
You will see many adverts for “credit problems” etc. Trust me,
these don’t apply to you. These services are for people with bad credit.
They may be horribly in debt, or just recovering and they’ll get a high
credit limit. You have NO credit record. Makes a world of difference.
Buying a vehicle, 13 banks turned down my application. Everyone refused to lease or finance the car.
[Tip: If you move to the Illinois area – there is apparently an ex
South African at Downer’s
Grove Dodge who is very sympathetic and helpful to South Africans.]
They wouldn’t even lease it to me if I paid the entire 3 year lease
amount up front! Logic and common sense doesn’t exist in the financial
industry. Eventually when I offered to put down a 50% deposit and they agreed
to give me finance, at a ridiculously high interest rate.
In general car buying here is a horrendous experience and expect to be ripped off. It’s not about ethics, but about making money.
Other references:
As soon as you can, build a list of at least 5 people in your area you can list as references.
Make friends with your company’s HR department – you’ll need them to send many faxes about your employment and earnings to people.
Please e-mail me if you have any other tips or suggestions: