How Do I Establish Credit CARD Orchard

Q: I am from India and i got married to my wife ( an American) in November 2003. I came to the United States in February 2004 after they approved my Permanent Resident Visa (marriage based). We had taken the DCF route. I have been here in US now for an Year & 4 Months. This February i applied and got a Secured Credit Card from Orchard Bank. I have been using it frequently and paying it off and it's in good shape. Yet, i have no credit established here. I have tried everything from store credit, furniture store credit, t- mobile cell phone, to a car loan... i get turned down for everything!! In fact, we just traded in our vehicle and my wife put me as a co- signee... the bank said that they will only give her the loan and if we put my name as a co-signee, they will *not* give the loan. So we had to remove my name from the loan to get the loan. Basically they said the same thing, no Credit Established. How do i establish credit here? I'm almost 6 months into my Secured Credit Card, but i don't really have anything else because i don't get approved for anything else. I don't understand how am i supposed to build credit if i don't get approved for anything. I applied for financing for a $1000 furniture set the other day and i was turned down for that as well. Anyone got any tips on what i can do to establish credit here?

A: -All these applications are hurting your credit. Stop! Get added to your wife's credit cards and bank accounts. -It can take 6 months of credit history to get a credit score, which is what most companies use to determine your credit worthiness. Applying for credit in so many places is going to HURT your credit score, you need to have some patience. Have you checked your credit to see if Orchard Bank is reporting your account? If you haven’t checked it, do so. If you don't see your Orchard account, call them and complain. They know that's the only reason you have an account with them. Doing what you are doing works (except applying in so many places), but credit takes a little time. An Orchard account is how my husband started his credit history and we just got a car loan together at a good rate! -You will not have a credit score until Orchard Bank have posted 6 months of usage data to the bureaus. They post 1 to 2 months behind, so you'll need to wait a little longer. On your Orchard Bank card, do

not use more than 20% of the maximum limit. Do not keep applying for credit all over the place. This is destroying your future score. More than a couple of rejected applications a year is too many. Plan your credit apps -- you should only apply if you know you have a good chance of being approved. Also, choose wisely. Orchard Bank is subprime. Your future apps should be for prime cards only. If your wife has goodish credit, get her to add you to one of her cards (preferably as a joint account holder rather than an additional user in a couple of months -- you usually need to phone a CSR and ask for this rather than fill in the additional user application found on the CC bill. .