Trying to help my husband establish credit

[mellamoes]

Hi everyone,

 

My husband just came back to the US after being in Europe for the last several months. He was here for a year (from March 2008-April 2009) as an intern, had a bank account with PNC and has maintained an average monthly balance of about 4-5k. Where should we start in getting him some credit? He applied at IKEA simply because we needed some stuff and thought it might be easier to start with a store card, and got a "we'll let you know in a couple weeks" response. We aren't sure if this is because he's foreign and they need to do some extra verification, or if its because he was just flat-out denied. He mentioned applying for a card through PNC but I'm not sure what the prospects of that are. He does have an AMEX that his company gave him, though I'm not sure if that reports to his credit or not. Its set up to where he submits an expense report each month and they deposit the approved amount into his bank account and he pays his own bill, so it sounds like its in his name completely, although he didn't fill out any kind of application, just signed into an account online to 'activate' the card. Other than that, he's got some credit from a small personal loan through HSBC in France, but thats really it. Whats it look like for him?

 

Thanks

[jph5125]

Did he have a credit card with any company in the country he previously lived in? I've heard of people converting a US AMEX card to a UK card and vise versa using their credit history from the other country. HSBC seems to be a very global banking company so you might inquire if they could use his French credit report as a basis for a decision since he is establishing himself in this country.

 

You could possibly try to get AMEX to consider his payment history on the company card, but it seems unlikely AMEX would be of any help because it has become hard for people with good credit to get an AMEX anymore

[GEORGE]

Hi everyone,

 

My husband just came back to the US after being in Europe for the last several months. He was here for a year (from March 2008-April 2009) as an intern, had a bank account with PNC and has maintained an average monthly balance of about 4-5k. Where should we start in getting him some credit? He applied at IKEA simply because we needed some stuff and thought it might be easier to start with a store card, and got a "we'll let you know in a couple weeks" response. We aren't sure if this is because he's foreign and they need to do some extra verification, or if its because he was just flat-out denied. He mentioned applying for a card through PNC but I'm not sure what the prospects of that are. He does have an AMEX that his company gave him, though I'm not sure if that reports to his credit or not. Its set up to where he submits an expense report each month and they deposit the approved amount into his bank account and he pays his own bill, so it sounds like its in his name completely, although he didn't fill out any kind of application, just signed into an account online to 'activate' the card. Other than that, he's got some credit from a small personal loan through HSBC in France, but thats really it. Whats it look like for him?

 

Thanks

Many times 7 to 10 days is code for DENIED

 

Otherwise you get instant approval

[mellamoes]

I know when he spoke to the bank in France (HSBC) he talked about getting a credit card in the US and they did say they would consider his French credit when he applied, but that he couldn't actually apply until he was here in the states.

 

I'm a little confused about the AMEX card though...aren't those kinds of cards (where you pay them yourself) usually in YOUR name, rather than your companies name, to prevent the employer from getting stuck with any charges should you use your card for unapproved charges? Wouldn't that go towards his own credit history in that case, or do these kind of cards operate on a totally different playing field?

 

As for the Ikea card, I'd be assuming the 7-10 day thing was a denial if it were me, but his situation just seems a little odd and I could also see the credit company wanting to do a little investigation...like for example at the time he didn't have a permenant address (just his company address) so he used that. Obviously his company address isn't going to match any address he would have on file with his credit report. We tried to check his FICO score and report online and have had the hardest time even getting that information (still working on it), so I imagine it would be a unique situation to find his credit history or at least personal history to make a decision. Is IKEA generally a tough place to get a card? Looking at their demographic (broke college kids needing 8 dollar side tables) I wouldn't think so, but you never really can tell.