Build credit in order to get cards in foreign country

clovist

I intend to move to america in october 2013 and want to do all i can right now to lessen the difficulty of getting a credit card once i arrive.

I'm 21, have no credit history whatsoever and rely on my father having little income myself. I study but with the open university so I don't know how easy it would be to get student cards.

My intention is to build up a credit history in the year i am still in the UK with a company that has a presence in both countries and use my existing credit history from the UK to get a credit card from the same company in the US. From searching around the internet i know this to be possible but It may not be very easy to even get a card here.

Some companies I was considering are barclay card, HSBC, citibank, capital one, chase, american express.

Any advice here would be great.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

HSBC imply that this could work with them. I don't know about the other organisations.

http://www.hsbc.com/1/2/hsbc-international-zone/moving-abroad

terriandaaron

We have a suntrust account in the USA, We opened it while over there as we travel a lot and pay our DVC (disney) annual dues from it, its free as long as you have a balence of more than 500$ in there and we have a visa card with it as welll, all run online from the uk...this would help start your credit history in the us.

We pay into it by transferring through paypal with no fees.

Tim_Bisley

Will you have a job when you are over there? I went on a university exchange, and they wouldn't even give me a debit card because I didn't have a letter from my parents. I was 23 and had been supporting myself since the age of 18...

reclusive46

American Express let you transfer credit cards to other countries. Maybe you could open one in the UK and then move it to USA when you move?

InsideInsurance

Most products aimed at the geographically mobile tend also to be aimed at those that are better off than those with no history and basically pocket money from the bank of Dad.

The US tend to be very state based with a lot more transactional fees involved in banking than we are used to. Whilst you may want to look at some of the bigger players (HSBC or Citi) with dual setups you'd want to check the consequences if they dont have local branches in the state you intend to be based in etc.

A friend when to the US for a couple of years to do some work/ study in a post doctorate role and he didn't have any issues opening accounts whilst he was there.