US citizen trying to get UK credit card

chattychappy

She was a Thai citizen working on a work permit.

JGUK

If you had/have an account with HSBC in the US, they are willing for a fee to transfer your account history to the UK and setup an account with credit facilities if you had them there.

Not sure if that helps.

iltisman

I found a site for US expats that may help (I was searching for Coolwhip ) http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php

gadgets.loco

This was 13 years ago so they may have changed. I relocated from the US on a work permit and was able to get a current account with HSBC. A few months later, I was able to get a credit card from them. Three years later I was able to obtain a mortgage from Halifax. All these on a leave to remain visa and not on the electoral roll.

Each bank have different criterias, so try other banks besides Lloyds.

gt94sss2

Have a look at http://www.experian.co.uk/consumer/questions/electoral-roll/electoral-roll-2.html

The advice is that you add a notice to your credit file explaining that you can't register to vote in the UK before you apply for any cards in the UK.

Also - and this is a more general point - check the T&C of the financial instutions - several don't want US citizens as customers due to US tax laws.

GwylimT

My wife isn't a US citizen but not a UK citizen either, she had to take out a prepay credit card, after about six months she was able to get a credit card. She did have a mortgage in the UK which of course helped.

deviousimp

I'm a US citizen, I've been here five years. I was accepted at Cap One, Tesco Foundation, and Nationwide Select. I have a current account with Nationwide, and have also just been approved for a £1,500 overdraft with them. The first two are the lowest limits (200 and 250). The second is £3500, which is a surprise. I work here, and was a student for almost five years before starting work about a month ago. As soon as I had my offer letter, Nationwide gave me cc and overdraft. If you can, switch to Nationwide, and have a good six months. They'll reward you after. They gave it to me without my wages going in yet, just my funding from the US every three months. So, I'd try to do that. I have Lloyds with my husband and they're incredibly inflexible. They wouldn't give us overdraft on our joint account until he went in and asked for it, just because I was on the account.

deviousimp

I should add, Lloyds just approved me for a credit card, with a £4,000 limit. I did it on the Lloyds app through our online banking. I'd also check HSBC as they just approved me as well. They'll just take a bit longer.