US Citizen Getting a Credit Card

PCKC

Hi all!

I am a UK citizen, but my wife is a US citizen. She was accepted for a spouse visa and arrived in February of this year. She has the full right to work and already has a nice job in London.

As we look towards the future and potential mortgage applications, we're naturally concerned about credit ratings. Credit scores do not carry across from the US to UK, so she is in a tricky position of having a poor rating.

The annoying part is, is that she has never had bad debt or missed any payments, so in a usual case she would easily be accepted for a card and could start to build rating.

We now have a joint current account which could help, but it would be much easier to just have a credit card in her name. We've looked into Aqua and other cards designed for people with low scores ...only to find she also needs to be on the electoral register! Which as a US citizen, would be impossible for her.

Has anyone been in this situation and found a solution?
Much appreciated!

ryuuoo

I'm pretty sure she can still get on the electoral roll to vote on the local elections?

Get her to get an Aqua card, and literally pay in full every month. This is a 2/3 year game to get a decent credit history so she can get better cards, the mortgage etc...

Biggles

ryuuoo wrote: »

I'm pretty sure she can still get on the electoral roll to vote on the local elections?

No, you have to be a British, Commonwealth or EU citizen to vote in any election.

But credit card providers don't only look at the electoral register and credit scores, she needs to talk to one or two and give them her details, especially of her job.

WillPS

I've read that Metro Bank are quite good in these circumstances. They'll probably want you to open and use a current account for a while before offering you more.

kovacsi76

If she has an US Amex card, she might be able to "transfer" it to the UK.

guesswho2000

kovacsi76 wrote: »

If she has an US Amex card, she might be able to "transfer" it to the UK.

Indeed, Amex Global Transfer - https://www.americanexpress.com/global-card-transfers/

I did that UK-Australia and it was fairly simple, they also retain your card membership start date, so you don't start from scratch in the new country.

phillw

PCKC wrote: »

We now have a joint current account which could help, but it would be much easier to just have a credit card in her name.

I don't know how much it helps her, or whether it will just punish you. However it would be worth making an appointment at your bank and see what they say about opening a credit card.

You may end up running up against "computer says no" but if you're super nice and the bank staff are helpful then they often know how to work through any issues, or can at least talk to the department involved and find out how to improve your chances.

I've had good experiences in HSBC, Nationwide, Halifax & Virgin. I've not tried Metro bank yet, but I get the impression that they are a "can do" bank.

dresdendave

Biggles wrote: »

No, you have to be a British, Commonwealth or EU citizen to vote in any election.

Classic example of what goes around comes around. If the OP's wife's 18th century ancestors hadn't been such troublemakers, we wouldn't have expelled them from the Empire and she would now be a Commonwealth citizen, like those well behaved Canadians.

System

dresdendave wrote: »

Classic example of what goes around comes around. If the OP's wife's 18th century ancestors hadn't been such troublemakers, we wouldn't have expelled them from the Empire and she would now be a Commonwealth citizen, like those well behaved Canadians.

They didn't get 'expelled' - they won a War of Independence.
They'd have enough of Imperial rule.

Yawn

This may be stating the obvious but there may be other ways of building up her credit report: a mobile phone contract, having some of the utility bills in her name. It will always be difficult to get a credit card without any other financial commitments, regardless of your nationality.

phillw

Yawn wrote: »

This may be stating the obvious but there may be other ways of building up her credit report: a mobile phone contract, having some of the utility bills in her name. It will always be difficult to get a credit card without any other financial commitments, regardless of your nationality.

I know someone who ended up getting a car from one of those rip off car supermarkets with the terribly expensive loan and that was the only way he could get any credit. After that he managed to get a credit card and was terrible with it, so in retrospect he would have been better off without credit at all.