Rating From The UK?
Q: My husband and I are in the process of moving to the US (Washington DC) on a G4 visa. We currently have a very good credit rating, and an HSBC Mastercard. Obviously we don't want to have to start from scratch and build a new credit rating, nor do we want to have to pay for exchan- ge rate differences by continuing to use our UK credit card. Does anyo- ne know of any banks/ credit card companies who will transfer our credit rating from the UK?
A: My husband used his company's address to open our bank account, they had to supply the bank with a supporting letter though. He was also able to open a bank account without a SSN. It was added to his account details once he had received it. Everything in the USA evolves around the SSN, if you want a bank account, cell phone, telephone, satellite tv everyth- ing! We didn't have a credit history in the USA, so the bank was unable to get a credit report on us. I was still resident in the UK so I copi- ed a UK credit report from Equifax, which I downloaded off of the websi- te, it cost me 8.00 pounds. Don't quote me on this but I think you are only able to get the credit report if you are resident in the UK, so you may want to do this whilst you are still there. This was used for our mortgage application, they refused to proceed with the mortgage until they had this information. However, it doesn't matter if the credit re- port was good or bad, it isn't recognised in the US
A: They just wanted it as proof that we said who we were. Of course, being as you have no USA credit history you do not get the going mortgage rates, they give a higher interest rate. E.g. the rate was 4.5% when we were applying but the offered us 7.5%, big difference. However, my husbands company paid over $2k so that we could come down two points on the scale and the rate dropped to 6%. You also have to put at least 20% as a down payment, or maybe more. The bank was open to negotiations and we came to a mutual agreement. It isn't easy getting credit cards either,