Almost there!

madwife2002, BSN, RN · May 13, 2006

My advice is to get a smuch credit going as you can through any bank, as it can be difficult to get a credit history over here. I know somebody will come on line and say I am wrong as that tends to happen, but I can assure you myself and others from the UK find this credit obtaining a bit of a problem.

Sometimes when I write advice on here I feel I must be the only person who has had problems in the US-ie with car insurance, health insurance, car buying, obtaining credit, jobs for spouses. I would love to hear from somebody from the Uk who has had no problems with any of the above.

madwife2002, BSN, RN · May 13, 2006

I was wondering if you letina have accommodation arranged. Citibank got in touch with us from the US (I gave permission for the agency to have people contacting us), with details on how to open an account & obtain a credit card ready to use when we get there. Also a car company offering factory prices on cars so we would have one when we get there.

I organised my own rental accomodation, Letina has her own home as do some of the others. Agencies can organise accomodation for you but it can be expensive-on the positive side you can try to let your agency organise 3 months rental and then you will hae the opportunity to look around and find where you would like to live.

letina · May 13, 2006

I was wondering if you letina have accommodation arranged. Citibank got in touch with us from the US (I gave permission for the agency to have people contacting us), with details on how to open an account & obtain a credit card ready to use when we get there. Also a car company offering factory prices on cars so we would have one when we get there.

Ah right.....Yes, we have our accommodation arranged, but my situation is perhaps a little different to some. We've been visiting Florida for many years on holiday, and already bought a home there before I started the immigration process. We initially bought it as a 'holiday home'. We also had opened a bank account when we were buying our home, we just opened a current account with a local bank. You can walk into any bank with your passport and $100 and you can open an account. As for the car, we've decided to get one on finance, this is a good way of starting to build your credit history. Even if you never intend buying anything on credit, building a credit history is a must as you'll need it for things like insurance, utilities etc. Another way is to get a store card, but pay it off in full every month. The better credit score you can build, the better 'deals' you'll get with anything and everything. A friend of mine took out a bank loan of $5000 and used it to buy furniture, even though she didn't really need the loan, but by doing this and settling the loan early also helps, again, toward your credit history. I don't really think having one particular bank (you mentioned Citibank) to help you with this is really necessary, you can shop around and decide what's the best deal for your own circumstances. I always think if someone wants exclusivity with your financial affairs, there's got to be something in it for them, but it may not necessarily be the best deal for you, but hey, I'm just an old cynic :chuckle I always think if something sounds too good to be true then it usually is :wink2: Just keep an open mind and shop around is what I say. Hope this helps :)

PS : Is your employer offering to help with accommodation? A lot of nurses get rented accommodation when they first arrive in the US and some employers give a stipend for the first couple of months. It's worth asking.

letina · May 13, 2006

My advice is to get a smuch credit going as you can through any bank, as it can be difficult to get a credit history over here. I know somebody will come on line and say I am wrong as that tends to happen, but I can assure you myself and others from the UK find this credit obtaining a bit of a problem.

:yeahthat: ......You are not wrong Kay. Even though I'm not there yet, I've researched and learned enough to know you must get into the US credit way of life. Take my hubby (well, not literally :chuckle ).....he's always been a man who says "if we can't afford to pay for something outright, we do without"....he struggled with this "getting credit" for a long time, but he's finally realising it will be difficult to function in the US without it. So yes, as Kay says, get as much credit going as you can, from wherever you can, just look for the best deals, interest rates etc.

gods · May 16, 2006

intresting