Thursday, September 29, 2005
Establishing Credit
Ok, to other immigrants, this will mean something, and possibly be helpful. To someone who already has an established credit profile and has no worries in that department, you probably won’t care to read on :-p
I just got off the phone with MBNA America, who said they have *finally* approved my credit application for a credit card. Now, at age 38 you’d think I would already have a perfectly good credit profile, and yes, I do. In Canada. But since I moved to the US, I have to start all over again, from scratch.
Shortly after I moved here I called MBNA to find out if I could transfer my MBNA Canada account to an American dollar account, and they said “nope, sorry you have no credit history in the US, we can’t give you a credit card” eejits. Then a couple of weeks ago I got in the mail a letter from MBNA America saying that I was “pre-approved” for an Air Canada affiliate credit card, just fill in this form and send it in. So I did. With a letter telling them of my excellent rating with MBNA Canada (in 3 years they had raised my credit limit 5 times!) and please please please! Give me a US dollar MBNA account.
Well, they called me yesterday. At the god awful hour of 8:45am (believe me, to folks who don’t get to bed til well after 1am, 8:45 is just too early for the phone to be ringing!) and they asked me about my Canadian account and my Social insurance number and they had to check my Canadian credit bureau. Today they called and said they wanted me to fax them a copy of my Social Security card, and then she called back to say I’d been approved! Yay! Finally, I am a person in the United States, with a credit history!
This whole immigration process is rather frustrating and annoying and stressful. I don’t know why they have to make it so difficult to transfer a perfectly good credit history from one country to another. Especially from Canada to the US, where they can easily share police records with no problems at all, but ask them to make a long distance phone call to one of their own foreign branch offices, and you’d think you were asking them to fly to the moon.
Next is American Express. I tried to transfer that one as well, but they said they can’t do it unless I have a job here in the US, and I have to cancel my Canadian account first. Maybe if I get that job that I’m interviewing for tomorrow, I’ll try them next. I just cancelled my Canadian AMEX card because I realized I have no idea where the heck it is! I figured I’d cancel it before someone else finds it and ruins me.
In the long drawn out process that is US immigration, I have one more step crossed off the To Do list, which was “establishing credit”. Now I just wish they’d set up my appointment for my Green Card already!
Oh, and my new MBNA Air Canada card will get me 5000 bonus miles added to my frequent flyer account with Air Canada. Maybe I can fly home for a quick visit sometime this year. If I have a job that is nice enough to give me time off that is. If not, I’ll be stuck here til Gods know when.
*sigh* Its like being 18 again and having to prove myself to the entire freakin adult world. Its really very frustrating. ¶ 3:11 PM
I just got off the phone with MBNA America, who said they have *finally* approved my credit application for a credit card. Now, at age 38 you’d think I would already have a perfectly good credit profile, and yes, I do. In Canada. But since I moved to the US, I have to start all over again, from scratch.
Shortly after I moved here I called MBNA to find out if I could transfer my MBNA Canada account to an American dollar account, and they said “nope, sorry you have no credit history in the US, we can’t give you a credit card” eejits. Then a couple of weeks ago I got in the mail a letter from MBNA America saying that I was “pre-approved” for an Air Canada affiliate credit card, just fill in this form and send it in. So I did. With a letter telling them of my excellent rating with MBNA Canada (in 3 years they had raised my credit limit 5 times!) and please please please! Give me a US dollar MBNA account.
Well, they called me yesterday. At the god awful hour of 8:45am (believe me, to folks who don’t get to bed til well after 1am, 8:45 is just too early for the phone to be ringing!) and they asked me about my Canadian account and my Social insurance number and they had to check my Canadian credit bureau. Today they called and said they wanted me to fax them a copy of my Social Security card, and then she called back to say I’d been approved! Yay! Finally, I am a person in the United States, with a credit history!
This whole immigration process is rather frustrating and annoying and stressful. I don’t know why they have to make it so difficult to transfer a perfectly good credit history from one country to another. Especially from Canada to the US, where they can easily share police records with no problems at all, but ask them to make a long distance phone call to one of their own foreign branch offices, and you’d think you were asking them to fly to the moon.
Next is American Express. I tried to transfer that one as well, but they said they can’t do it unless I have a job here in the US, and I have to cancel my Canadian account first. Maybe if I get that job that I’m interviewing for tomorrow, I’ll try them next. I just cancelled my Canadian AMEX card because I realized I have no idea where the heck it is! I figured I’d cancel it before someone else finds it and ruins me.
In the long drawn out process that is US immigration, I have one more step crossed off the To Do list, which was “establishing credit”. Now I just wish they’d set up my appointment for my Green Card already!
Oh, and my new MBNA Air Canada card will get me 5000 bonus miles added to my frequent flyer account with Air Canada. Maybe I can fly home for a quick visit sometime this year. If I have a job that is nice enough to give me time off that is. If not, I’ll be stuck here til Gods know when.
*sigh* Its like being 18 again and having to prove myself to the entire freakin adult world. Its really very frustrating. ¶ 3:11 PM
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Yayyyyyy! Go Reba!
I don't know what the deal with MBNA US/CA/UK is, but it's not consistent the world over. MBNA UK told Gareth that once he had a job over here in the states that they'd transfer the card over as long as he closed the UK account. Amex was the same exact thing. And MBNA wouldn't transfer your Canadian card, which in fact - not just theory is ten times easier because it's easier to gather CA credit history. I don't get it.
Oh, here's another tidbit we just found out. Banknorth and Bank of America WILL run a Canadian or European credit check when applying for a mortgage through them. I'm not sure how much BofA charges, but I know that Banknorth charges (the customer) a base of $300 to run a European (including the UK) credit check. Yikes! I was told it all depends on what is involved, and if the resident person in the US owned a business or more than two homes in the UK, the price goes up quite a bit.
Now, how they use the information once they have it, and how they store it, is another thing entirely. I think that's one of the caveats to the US aquiring credit info from other countries, while we have strict laws and regulations governing how information gathered from American credit grantors is stored and used, we don't have any (that I know of) regulations for the storage or use of information gathered from credit reporting agencies from other countries.
How hard can it be though? There are strict laws in place regarding the information contained in criminal background checks from other countries, how come we can't apply the same thing to private information including credit histories, from other countries?
I don't know what the deal with MBNA US/CA/UK is, but it's not consistent the world over. MBNA UK told Gareth that once he had a job over here in the states that they'd transfer the card over as long as he closed the UK account. Amex was the same exact thing. And MBNA wouldn't transfer your Canadian card, which in fact - not just theory is ten times easier because it's easier to gather CA credit history. I don't get it.
Oh, here's another tidbit we just found out. Banknorth and Bank of America WILL run a Canadian or European credit check when applying for a mortgage through them. I'm not sure how much BofA charges, but I know that Banknorth charges (the customer) a base of $300 to run a European (including the UK) credit check. Yikes! I was told it all depends on what is involved, and if the resident person in the US owned a business or more than two homes in the UK, the price goes up quite a bit.
Now, how they use the information once they have it, and how they store it, is another thing entirely. I think that's one of the caveats to the US aquiring credit info from other countries, while we have strict laws and regulations governing how information gathered from American credit grantors is stored and used, we don't have any (that I know of) regulations for the storage or use of information gathered from credit reporting agencies from other countries.
How hard can it be though? There are strict laws in place regarding the information contained in criminal background checks from other countries, how come we can't apply the same thing to private information including credit histories, from other countries?
yeah, I dunno. I think it depends on who you talk to at the credit companies on what answer you'll get. Kind of like calling the USCIS misinformation line 5 times and get 5 different answers ;-)
Well, the good news is I got the credit, AND I got the job I interviewed for today! Whew! Now I have something to support my Watkins habit! LOL ;-)
Thanks for the good luck, it worked *hugs*
Well, the good news is I got the credit, AND I got the job I interviewed for today! Whew! Now I have something to support my Watkins habit! LOL ;-)
Thanks for the good luck, it worked *hugs*
Dear Becca, I know it was a hard process to immigrate to USA but didn't know it'll be as hard to immigarte from Canada to here, thought things were much easier. Well, I can only wish you good luck, I am sure you'll manage!!!
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