new to the uk/no credit history

kimbles

stephane wrote: »

You are not considered a resident after only 18 months.

Why not? I am in every other respect. I took out an ISA after checking that they considered me to be a resident as that was one of the conditions of opening one.

I am from NZ so am a citizen of the commonwealth. I have an ancestry visa which is for 5 years and essentially means that I have access to anything a british citizen has access to (ie NHS drs, dentists etc) except I have no access to any type of benefits from the government

Thanks to everyone for your help, will look into vanquis and three and see what I can do.

chexum

You can be resident from day one - "ordinarily" resident, that is, but most offices won't regard you as one before living here for 3 years.

You can be permanent resident only after six years, this is what some places seem to mean - so ignore it

Some CC applications won't even let you click submit before having 3 full years of UK address history. Egg seems to need 2. Subprimes can be had with less, if you have lived at least two places, but can be picky about landlines or electoral roll for example, Vanquis and Capital One can be nice if you are careful.

Have you checked your credit reports (the statutory ones are ok) if the electoral registration is indeed OK, and if you don't have any funny stuff there?

Mycashplus creditbuilder is nice, but they make you jump through hoops, they may need a lot of personal details, certified copy of a passport to accept you in the program, and then you have to be careful to keep 4.95 on the card for each month. They will report your account after 3 months.

It could be somewhat easier to do the same with a monthly mobile account, occasionally they will request a deposit. O2 wanted £100 from me to move to a pay-monthly account, but proceeded without that - I didn't really understand

If you're with Barclays, make sure you have a full account (not a basic one), and request an overdraft from them. Even full accounts seem to have only a £10 overdraft by default, which is not really considered an actual credit. My credit chances got a bit better after requesting a £100 o/d. On opening, they suggested me to go for the Plus account (at that time it was £3/mo, now it's £5), stating it's better for future credit. I can't tell if it's true, but now I actually have a CC which is not from them.

If you regularly see your bank (or your company has any links to them), you can also ask them for an appointment to discuss what options you have for getting credit (though avoid loans).

Also, you can expect better chances with CCs after 1 year on a given address, 1/2/3y with a bank, and with a landline.

BTW, I share most of your circumstances, almost exactly, except for the old country and the credit ladder

jonesMUFCforever

The ''magic'' figure is 3 years.
Banks have tightened their lending criteria to immigrants to the UK so only sub prime Will touch OP.

heloid

I managed to get a credit card from HSBC after being in the country for about 12 months in July last year. £1500 limit. I had been at that address for about 2 months.
The only difference between you and me is that I hold a EU passport as well as a NZ one.
So it's not impossible, but I think no EU citizens get treated quite differently (ie. less likely to buy a plane ticket on their card then skip the country when their visa runs out).

Mr.Mulla

I didn't know that 3 years residency is a requirement to get credit cards in UK..and the reason why I joined this forum is to learn more about financial and banking matters in UK because I am planning to move there in a couple of years.

Will Dewi's suggestion or idea help? Like if we have used credit cards here in the US?

heloid

Dewi's point will ONLY work with companies such as Amex as they are one of very few card companies that offer internationally (i.e they have knowledge of your behaviour from outside the country). There will be very few others in the UK that can do this.
To confirm his point though, my Australian friend got an Amex a week after arriving in the UK based on his history in Australia, first step on the ladder.

morocha

i moved to the uk in 2006, become a resident in 2008 and got my first credit card with Barclays ( i bank with HSBC) in 2007.
i am not a EU passport holder, my oh is british tho.
i have never had a bank account, credit cards or anything where i come from... i started with a basic bank account, had a pay as you go mobile phone... not much really.. now i have 2 credit cards...

kimbles

Good news! I went into three yesterday and they gave me phone contract no problems. I don't think they do the sim zero one anymore but I have a cheap contract for 18months and I can even ring my mum for free!.

I was a bit worried when they went to do the credit check thing but they accepted me so no complaints here.

Will just wait to hear from Vanquis now.

Thanks everyone for your help, looks like I will be able to improve my credit rating after all.

izools

kimbles wrote: »

Good news! I went into three yesterday and they gave me phone contract no problems. I don't think they do the sim zero one anymore but I have a cheap contract for 18months and I can even ring my mum for free!.

I was a bit worried when they went to do the credit check thing but they accepted me so no complaints here.

Will just wait to hear from Vanquis now.

Thanks everyone for your help, looks like I will be able to improve my credit rating after all.

Don't worry too much if Vanquis say no this time around, you have your foot in the door and can re-apply to them after 6+ months, at least then you will have a few months payment history on your Three contract to support a future application