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Building a Credit History for a Non-Citizen
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Borrowing a sum of $20,000 from a bank that you already have would cost thousands in interest. That's just silly.
The same strategies to building credit that work here also work in the US - i.e. start with store and sub-prime cards and behave yourself. And credit is generally easier to obtain in the US, even in these troubled times - it's telling that the terms debit and credit cards are used interchangeably there.0 -
jonesMUFCforever wrote: »If she is not a UK citizen then she will not be granted credit facilities and your mortgage application will fail.
This is incorrect. I am American by birth but also holds dutch citzenship from my father's side.
And despite not being a UK citizen and only living here since late 2007, I have full current accounts with Natwest, Halifax, Santander and Barclays. Recently got one of the preimum credit cards from Natwest with 18 months free balance transfer and 6 months free purchases. I also have overdradt facilty with couple of current accounts.
And I can also confirm, mortgages are available to foreign nationals. Natwest, Halifax, Woolwich and IngDirect, just to name a few accept foreign nationals for their mortgage products.
It all comes down to having a credit history. I started with cap1 progress and barclaycard intial and natwest step account and slowly have built credit history to acquire credit products.0 -
jonesMUFCforever wrote: »When was this please?
Things have changed drastically in last couple of years.
My wife's story was in the last 3 years.
One thing I forgot to add - we also had a "notice of correction" put on her Experian credit file explaining why she wasn't able to be on the electoral roll. That seemed to help, although every credit application she or I (since we have a joint account) had to be referred to be approved manually.0 -
jonesMUFCforever wrote: »When was this please?
Things have changed drastically in last couple of years.
3 to 5 years ago.0 -
My wife has lived in the country for two years however as she is not a British Citizen (though that might happen in the future) she is not able to be on the electoral role.
Hello :j I am a EU citizen and have been a UK resident for nearly 13 years and have been on the electoral role for nearly 11 years. After 2 years being a citizen in the UK she can be added to the electoral role as they do actually register if you are a non citizen and what country you are from.
If in doubt, check out the direct gov website
I started off with a basic bank account and a mobile phone contract and started building my credit file and as you can see from my signature, credit was no issues after a while.
I wish it would have been as then I wouldn't have been in such a mess.
Anyway, getting a mortgage after some credit building isn't an issue if she is added to the electoral role and builds some history.LBM 11/2009 Total Debts 11/2009 £44624 with DFD 2015
Debt Free Date: 14/11/2012 :j:j:j0 -
EU citizens can be on the electoral roll as soon as they move here and start to exercise their treaty rights - there's no 2 year waiting period. And it makes sense for them to be on there so they can vote in European Parliament elections.
But the US is neither part of the EU nor the Commonwealth, so my wife has to wait until she's a citizen...0
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