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As a newcomer to the States, you need to build credit before you can improve it: 

- Have a stable employment
- Do not move from one place to another too often
- Open checking/savings account, and if the bank offers you a credit card, accept it
- If the bank doesn't, apply for a secure credit card instead, but make sure to read the fine prints
- Apply for department store card and gas card, then charge only a small amount to establish the accounts
- Never run up your cards to more than you can comfortably pay each month
- Pay all of your bills promptly
- Pay all your cards in full each month
- Keep your debt-to-income ratio to below 35% and your housing cost to below 25%

Your credit score will improve slowly if you do all of those things.  It'll take a long time to get your score to above 700 and years to increase it to above 800.

It's very difficult to finance a car without credit score.  It's possible to do so with a low score but the interest rate would be sky high, and a loan with exceedingly high interest would affect your score until you pay off the car.

Thank you for this!

How long did it take you to get your credit score to a reasonable place?

Our credit scores have always been very good all our lives because our debt-to-income ratio was always very low when we were still in the workforce, and it's still low now in our retirement.  We had good combined income but lived rather simple comparing to the typical American.  Aside from travelling, we had very few expenses back then and even fewer now.  We live to travel, not to acquire material things.

At the moment, my FICO score is 797 and my husband's is 784.  Our credit card interest rates have been staying in the single digit for more than 10 years now.

Apologies,

What I meant was, my UK credit score is great,

But obviously I am classed as an "unknown" now I have moved out here to the US.

I suppose my question is how long will it reasonably take for me to build my credit score to comparable level to what it was in the Uk?

Thanks,

Ben

My guess is it would take about a year, but according to Experian, "it takes between three and six months of regular credit activity for your file to become thick enough that a credit score can be calculated."

Hey,

As an immigrant myself (been in the U.S. since 2005) I can answer this one for ya.

So with regards to credit, it is very important in the U.S. for mainly 2 things.

1) Purchasing a home.
2) Getting a loan with a good rate (when you REALLY need one).

It typically takes 7 years to "establish" credit history, however, that doesn't mean your credit cannot be good before the 7-year mark, but it just means that lenders MIGHT occasionally reject you for not having "long-enough" history, even with a good score.

I recommend you open an account with to monitor your score and all your credit accounts (I am not affiliated with them, it is just simply what I use).

The best and easiest way to build your credit is to get a credit card from your bank, and use it for all your purchases and all your needs, and pay it in FULL when the statement is out every month. It is important to actually pay it when the statement is out, NOT before that! (A lot of people make this mistake! If you pay it before the statement is released then NO activity is reported to the credit bureaus!)

When you make regular payments to your credit card, the bank will report your good standing with the 3 major credit bureaus (The three major consumer credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. A credit bureau is a company that gathers and stores various types of information about you and your financial accounts and history).

To improve your score, keep your credit-line utilization to around 30% to 35% and pay off your credit cards fully on every credit-statement. DO NOT open too many credit card accounts! Try to limit yourself to 1 new account per year or less, keep using the accounts you open regularly. Don't just open an account and never use it! Lenders typically don't like to see that on your credit report.

You CAN get a loan to finance a car without a credit score but I REALLY REALLY don't recommend it! They will rip you off BIG TIME! You will be paying an INSANE interest rate! I highly recommend that you just save for a bigger down-payment and most companies will be willing to give you a good loan even with little to no credit score (due to possessing a larger down payment).

Try to establish a good relationship with a creditor, for example I've been using American Express for a very long time, even though my credit is good (800+), since I've been dealing with them exclusively for a very long time, they tend to give me WAY better deals on credit card interest rates, loans, savings accounts, etc. Building a history with your financial institute of choice is very important - so choose wisely!

I hope this helps! I can probably write a lot more details, but this should be a good start!

Benjamin1990 wrote:

Hi all,

Recently moved to the USA and interested in understanding how to grow my credit score?

How long has is usually taken people?

Any tips on how to improve my score?

Am I able to get a loan or get financing for a car without a credit score?

Any help would be appreciated,

Thanks,

Ben

Just a few words of advice:

Another important thing is to NEVER open a credit-card account randomly! Trust me, they will try to get you to do that and LURE you with discounts! DO NOT DO IT! For example, you could be at the mall, and the clerk at the department store will say "Hey open a credit card account TODAY and save 25%!" or something like this, and they will try to make it really appealing - just do NOT do it! Research the HECK out of a credit card and read ALL the fine-print before you open it! Never make a decision like that on the spot! It will almost always hurt your credit.

There is also another aspect to credit scores in the U.S. called "hard inquiries" which means, how many times you've actually asked for a credit card or a loan. A hard inquiry stays on your credit score for 2 years! It is VERY important to NOT have too many hard inquiries on your history! There are some lenders (like Chase for example) who simply will not give you ANY credit if you have more than 5 inquiries in the past 2 years!

Be careful using your social security number online, even "checking eligibility" could sometimes be a hard inquiry. So in summary, ONLY "Apply" to credit cards and loans that you actually want (and have researched).

Closing a credit account WILL hurt your score for at least 2 years. Every bit of activity on your credit score is available on your report for 2 years (such as closing an account, hard inquiries, etc.) Some activities stay on the credit score for 7 years, such as non-payment, defaulting, and so on. It is important to understand that every aspect of your credit score will have an effect on you somehow in the future - so pay close attention to every action you perform with your credit and always research your next move.