Since neither one of us has lived in the US for the past 16
years, we don’t have anything on our credit report, which means, as you will
know if you are familiar with the American credit system, that our credit score
is bad. It doesn’t matter that we have cash savings or that we have paid bills,
rents and held credit cards in our names in four different countries without
ever owing anyone anything at the end of the month (because we’ve always paid everything
on time and never spent money we didn’t have); in the eye of an American
business, we are not financially trustworthy.
Since we might want to one day live in the US permanently,
we are looking at this year as an opportunity to fix this and to build up our
credit (so that one day we can purchase a house, for example, or do something else you need good credit for). And since we had to buy a car
first thing when we got here, and we know this is something people might get a loan to do, we
thought it would be a good start for us to take out a loan to buy our car, and
then pay it off. This would look good on our credit report, right? Well, guess
what? The car salesman said he couldn’t help us if we didn’t have a credit score,
and our bank turned us down when we applied.
We had to pay for our car in cash.
This is going to be more difficult than we imagined.
That is precisely why we are renting our home now. We looked into buying but it was impossible for us. No rental history. No credit. And a student stipend doesn't count as income so "no income" either. :)
ReplyDeleteCan you get a credit card and use it for small purchases and pay it off each month? I've heard that can work well. You might talk to a financial advisor about it, too... Gotta love these vicious circles. Need a loan to get a credit rating, need a credit rating to get a loan. Round round we go.
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely to return from my vacation to find you posting! I hope you find that steak you're looking for. ; )