Credit Cards and Banks

So I have around six credit cards (AMEX, Chase, Citibank etc) in the USA and a Capital One checking account. Will I be able to keep them/use them since I'll soon have a UK address? 

I've gotten well established credit in the States. Does that have any impact at all in the UK? Or will I be at ground level with my credit. Be odd to be a 48 year old with no credit lol.

Any tips as far as banking, credit cards, and financial services? Also is it not advisable to contribute to an IRA when living and working in the UK?

So I have around six credit cards (AMEX, Chase, Citibank etc) in the USA and a Capital One checking account. Will I be able to keep them/use them since I'll soon have a UK address? 

I've gotten well established credit in the States. Does that have any impact at all in the UK? Or will I be at ground level with my credit. Be odd to be a 48 year old with no credit lol.

Any tips as far as banking, credit cards, and financial services? Also is it not advisable to contribute to an IRA when living and working in the UK?

I kept my accounts open, but couldn't convince them to transfer to a UK card. So their kind of emergency cards, though my chase card has not international fees. Most of my cards have options when you log onto account online you can put in dates that you'll be abroad so your card won't be flagged. But I think it's a limited time period not indefinite so I'd have to change it if I needed to use them. Or I use PayPal where possible.

Credit starts ground zero as I was told by my UK Bank. Which kind of hurts lol. I've worked hard to get great credit since I've been 18, and now at 27 have to start over. But, my uk bank did tell me get a bank account asap and have a direct debit bill or two come out every month. So I had my husband change some bills into my account. They told me within six months to a year I will have some stability and be able to apply for a credit card.

I can't advise on the IRA, but hopefully somebody else can.

You can switch your US AmEx to a UK AmEx which will help.  Other than that, your US credit will mean nothing.  It blows!

I'm wondering about my Capital One CCs. They actually have UK credit cards, but I'm not sure if I could transfer over to one from my current accounts.

I'm wondering about my Capital One CCs. They actually have UK credit cards, but I'm not sure if I could transfer over to one from my current accounts.

Capital one UK and Capital one US are completely separate companies. They don't 'talk' to each other at all. I'd have a UK card with them now if they did.

We have kept a couple of US cards and changed the address to the UK, however we have to pay the balances from US accounts.

Hi,

As per above, it's only American Express that'll allow you to transfer your account from the USA to the UK with them. If there's any more providers that do this and vice versa i'd be very interested, but for now that's the only one.

Establishing credit will be relatively easy to start doing, it's increasing your credit score progressively which recently has become harder to do. Use clearscore.com to begin tracking your UK credit history, it's free as well. I've recently started to use it and I still have the paid for Experian service. The Clearscore seems to give me a 'better' score than the Experian one though!

There's quite a few threads in the financial/money matters section on how to begin to build credit and keep a good momentum going so that you can increase your score as quickly as possible. Have a look around for the latest threads as the criteria is a bit more stringent nowadays. Act upon any alerts you see in your report as quickly as you can.

One recent tip - If you have an alert of some sort, write to each of the credit reference agencies if it's marked you down and it's a 'relatively' minor infraction as it were, say like a late credit card monthly repayment. This will mean a person will look at the letter and any credible reasons why the 'alert' occured and they may well 'reverse' the negative impact. Not guaranteed to work, but well worth a try.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Back when I moved from the US to the UK, in 2013, my husband and I went to Barclays bank and added my name to his accounts. Also, as we wanted to buy a house soon-ish after, I explained the situation to the banker and she was able to open a CC immediately for me; however, with a small credit limit and needed to be fully paid at the end of each month. Regardless, it helped me out a lot as 6 months after my husband and I applied for a mortgage successfully.

To follow up, when I arrived here I needed a bank account for work to pay me, so I went with HSBC. They offered me a CC right off the bat.

I think it was so easy for me because I came over on a Tier 2 visa with a decent income coming in. From what I've seen here, everything seems to be harder on a spouse visa, though I'm not sure why.

 Going forward I have my AMEX and HSBC cards, and I think that'll be enough for a while. The whole point for me is to build credit (and squirrel away money for a flat), so I'm not looking to get myself in debt to my eyeballs. Just enough that a bank will give me a mortgage I might get try for a Tesco Clubcard CC just for the points and convenience.

I don't see myself going back to the States ever, but I'm going to keep my American CCs just so that if I ever do, I'll have credit there too. I'm going to use them to pay for apps on Google Play so they get used, but the charges are minimal.





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