American Credit Cards etc

8david5

I am emigrating to the USA in January. As I have only just graduated I do not have much money behind me to make the move. In addition, once I make the move I will initially have quite a lot of outgoings and my first pay won't be made for at least two weeks. I suppose I have two questions really:

1) Will I manage to apply for credit in the USA based upon good credit file in the UK? (this way I could get a credit card out there and all would be fine)

2) What are the best/is the best credit card(s) to take with me just in case I really need access to money. I have a nationwide current account which I will use to access all the money I have but like I said I am likely to need some form of credit in my first two or three week while I find my feet.

I really appreciate ANY suggestions and hope you can all come up with some good ideas!

Moggles_2

I've no recent experience of working in the USA, but lenders the world over like stability, so best practice is to apply for credit facilities, where possible, before you move/change jobs/change banks. Being with the same employer, bank and current address for a while, all help when applying for credit

chattychappy

For their chargecards, American Express have a transfer service. Of course Amex chargecards don't get you extended credit and you have to pay an annual fee. I wonder if they have a similar service for their credit cards, anyone??

Else I can only think of this. Before you leave, get an Abbey Zero/Post Office type credit card. You an use them in the US without a fee. (I prefer Abbey/Santander because their online system is miles better.) Operate it remotely until you are settled enough in the US to get credit there. Use your UK current account to make the repayments (hopefully you can get a 0% deal and will only need to meet the minimum repayments). Once you've depleted your funds, then from time-to-time T/T chunks of cash from a US bank account to your UK current account and use this to continuing making the payments.

greenmantle

Will I manage to apply for credit in the USA based upon good credit file in the UK?

Unlikely - i opened an HSBC US account in 2008, after having an HSBC UK account for years and years. Their systems are separate and when I applied for a credit card after two months (of money going in), I got turned down, since I didn't have any credit history there. Application for a current account was fast-tracked, since I had UK HSBC cards to brandish, but that was about it - otherwise you need a letter from your employer or something.

After about four months they said I qualified for 'overdraft protection' which, on a current account, is basically them allowing you to go overdrawn informally and charging you $35 for it. The whole banking charges debate is practically prenatal in the US, since you get charged for everything.

I'd ensure that you had a good prepaid card or 0% UK credit card (with back-up savings to pay off online) to cover you for at least three months, as sorting things out as an alien in the US always takes longer than you anticipate. There'll be getting a Social Security number before you can be paid, etc etc...

ps. HSBC had a 'switching service' but it seemed to cost and to be designed for high earners. I'm also sceptical about how well it would actually work - if the staff on the US side are unfamiliar with the process, you end up just schlepping around from desk to desk anyway. Worse if you're going anywhere but New York, since the further away from there, the less you encounter banks with any international contacts/custom/experience at all.

elfen

Sell as much of your stuff as you can that you don't need to take with you and won't need if you return quite soon (e.g. TV, DVD player, hi-fi...you get the picture) then get a card that can use there (think the FX card does US dollars) then live off that maybe?

callum9999

greenmantle wrote: »

Unlikely - i opened an HSBC US account in 2008, after having an HSBC UK account for years and years. Their systems are separate and when I applied for a credit card after two months (of money going in), I got turned down, since I didn't have any credit history there. Application for a current account was fast-tracked, since I had UK HSBC cards to brandish, but that was about it - otherwise you need a letter from your employer or something.

After about four months they said I qualified for 'overdraft protection' which, on a current account, is basically them allowing you to go overdrawn informally and charging you $35 for it. The whole banking charges debate is practically prenatal in the US, since you get charged for everything.

I'd ensure that you had a good prepaid card or 0% UK credit card (with back-up savings to pay off online) to cover you for at least three months, as sorting things out as an alien in the US always takes longer than you anticipate. There'll be getting a Social Security number before you can be paid, etc etc...

ps. HSBC had a 'switching service' but it seemed to cost and to be designed for high earners. I'm also sceptical about how well it would actually work - if the staff on the US side are unfamiliar with the process, you end up just schlepping around from desk to desk anyway. Worse if you're going anywhere but New York, since the further away from there, the less you encounter banks with any international contacts/custom/experience at all.

That surprised me about HSBC. I wanted to pay some money into my account while I was in America and they had no facilities what-so-ever to implement this.

greenmantle

Yep, at the level of personal non-elite banking, is more or less like they're separate companies, but they regard your attachment to HSBC UK as some kind of badge of respectability. I'm sure when it comes to the bank's own investments, their international status works for them, but at local branch-banking, it's almost meaningless.

A branch in Brooklyn once tried to tell me they couldn't cash HSBC dollar traveller's cheques. Duh. It's always struck me that their slogan 'the World's Local Bank' is pretty disingenuous. Maybe they're better operating between the UK and, say, Southeast Asia, since that's their neck of the woods and their US presence is comparatively minimal. But it's always !!!!ed me off slightly that such a core part of their advertising is, from my perspective, mostly rubbish. :rolleyes:

gt94sss2

While at university in the UK, I spent a year studying in the USA.

I had a HSBC Student account and my branch put me in touch with their 'international banking centre' in the UK who arranged for me to open accounts with HSBC USA - all on the back of my 'existing relationship' with HSBC UK.

This meant that I had accounts all set up before I left the UK including debit and credit cards.. and it was all for free.

Regards
Sunil

greenmantle

*happy (if surprised) to stand corrected on this*!