For those who don't know I moved to the US in January 2002 and I've enjoyed every minute of it since. 
That said, everyone knows about the 'credit game' here. When you're a n00b in the US lots of things are difficult or weird.
No credit history means:
Sky high insurance.
No cell phone without hundreds of $$$ in deposit.
No international / long distance phone without $$$ deposit.
Getting any kind of credit for a car (which is needed) = major PITA.
So I had to bend over and take it for a while. :disgust:
My plan was this. Get any credit I could even if that meant getting raped without lube. See it as an investment.
After aound 2 months I found a car I liked. I was limited to basically 1 dealer because they were the only ones who even considered me as a customer. My very good friend who moved here a year earlier was kind enough to co-sign my loan. He told me he'd do it to help me getting into the system. Kudos to him :beer:
Anyhow, got the loan at 29.3% interest rate!! Talk about rape, LOL! I figured, OK I can take that abuse for 6 to 9 months to build credit.
The plan started to pay off. In September 2002 I was able to refinance with a Credit Union, got 5.25%. Wooho!
Slowly some credit card offers started coming in. Most was crap, $500 limit @ %24 APR.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Got an offer from MBNA for a Master Card CC. Up to $3000 limit @ 7.9% APR.
Yesterday they called and asked a few Q's about my stay here and how long I was planning on staying and how much $$$ I usually have in the bank. I was approved!!
$2500 limit @ 7.9% Not to shabby I would say.
That said, everyone knows about the 'credit game' here. When you're a n00b in the US lots of things are difficult or weird.
No credit history means:
Sky high insurance.
No cell phone without hundreds of $$$ in deposit.
No international / long distance phone without $$$ deposit.
Getting any kind of credit for a car (which is needed) = major PITA.
So I had to bend over and take it for a while. :disgust:
My plan was this. Get any credit I could even if that meant getting raped without lube. See it as an investment.
After aound 2 months I found a car I liked. I was limited to basically 1 dealer because they were the only ones who even considered me as a customer. My very good friend who moved here a year earlier was kind enough to co-sign my loan. He told me he'd do it to help me getting into the system. Kudos to him :beer:
Anyhow, got the loan at 29.3% interest rate!! Talk about rape, LOL! I figured, OK I can take that abuse for 6 to 9 months to build credit.
The plan started to pay off. In September 2002 I was able to refinance with a Credit Union, got 5.25%. Wooho!
Slowly some credit card offers started coming in. Most was crap, $500 limit @ %24 APR.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Got an offer from MBNA for a Master Card CC. Up to $3000 limit @ 7.9% APR.
Yesterday they called and asked a few Q's about my stay here and how long I was planning on staying and how much $$$ I usually have in the bank. I was approved!!
$2500 limit @ 7.9%
Not to shabby I would say.
Facebook
Twitter