Establishing Credit???

Just remember, use it every month and pay it off every month!!

(Actually, you might want to try alternating-put $50 on it, pay $25 for two months, then pay it off in full for a couple of moths, then pay half, etc...The thing is, as I think I said, your credit scores are better when you pay off every month...but the credit card companies want to make money off of you, and they don't if you pay in full every month.  Especially now that things aren't going so well in the credit card industry, they'll stick an annual fee on your account quick as looking at you if you don't pay any interest!)

Am glad to read about the whole bankruptcy student loan thing.  I too have horrendous credit thanks to student loans and other things :-/  and am thinking of filing for bankruptcy as well.  My hubby has sterling credit here in the UK and I too want us to suffer because of my past mistakes :-/

If he has never been to the states before he will have NO credit history he would NOT of exsisted till the day you land and apply for things there...we had this problem when Glenn came over the first time, we had to have a co-signer for everything to begin with.

I know this is an ANCIENT thread, but I came across some new info today that might be helpful. It's about transfering a UK based American Express card into a US one, and thereby having credit in the States upon arrival. Apparently several people have done this successfully, though it's iffy about whether or not they'll le tyou do it if you don't have a job Stateside waiting for you. Here's AMEX's page about it...
http://home3.americanexpress.com/canada/en/global_card_transfer_en.asp

Oh, and something else as well...if you still have credit in America (like if you kept one card open, or kept a checking account open), you can add your spouse as a cosigner and that account will immediately reflect on their credit.  Not from the date you added them, from the date the account was opened.  So that's something that may be helpful to some of you.

(Incidentally...it is easier to get an account based on your credit and add the person without credit than it is to apply together.  Most companies will add a husband as a cosigner without even checking their credit at all, tho they will take the info.)

Oh, and something else as well...if you still have credit in America (like if you kept one card open, or kept a checking account open), you can add your spouse as a cosigner and that account will immediately reflect on their credit.  Not from the date you added them, from the date the account was opened.  So that's something that may be helpful to some of you.

(Incidentally...it is easier to get an account based on your credit and add the person without credit than it is to apply together.  Most companies will add a husband as a cosigner without even checking their credit at all, tho they will take the info.)

Phil's been a cosigner on my 2 US credit cards for almost 2 years now.  They didn't even need anything like a SSN - just took his name and printed him a card!

Phil's been a cosigner on my 2 US credit cards for almost 2 years now.  They didn't even need anything like a SSN - just took his name and printed him a card!

Is he a cosigner or an authorized user?

Sorry - authorised user!  Had my terminology a bit mixed up there.  (Hey - it's 2 days before Christmas!)

I know this is an ANCIENT thread, but I came across some new info today that might be helpful. It's about transfering a UK based American Express card into a US one, and thereby having credit in the States upon arrival. Apparently several people have done this successfully, though it's iffy about whether or not they'll le tyou do it if you don't have a job Stateside waiting for you. Here's AMEX's page about it...
http://home3.americanexpress.com/canada/en/global_card_transfer_en.asp

My husband tried this around the begining of december and was told flat out by Amex that if he didnt have a job in the US that they wouldnt "transfer" his card. If you dont have an SSN they can get around that by using passport details, but you've got to have that income.

Will say more when we've got the job

Thanks for that Sarah!