It is difficult and frustrating to build a credit history in US if you are an immigrant. The three CRAs namely: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, are the major credit reporting agencies in US. They aren’t Government Organizations and they do not share information with each other, which means that they are in competition with each other.
If you do have a credit history in your home country, you won’t be able to transfer that to the CRAs in US, because they won’t accept information from other overseas countries due to some legal/privacy issues. So, this means you’ll have to start from the very beginning.
Here are some tips which will make this process easier:
1. Obtain a Social Security Number
First of all, you’ll need a Social Security Number for establishing a credit in US. In the past, International Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) would have been useful, but they are no longer compatible with CRAs system. An address in United States will also be required to fill in the credit applications.
CRAs can definitely create an account without Social Security Number by matching your other identifying information but you’ll have to bear its consequences afterwords.
A SSN is important, as most of the lenders will require the number in order to check your credit report when you apply. It might be possible that you get credit without the number, but the reference of that credit won’t show up in your credit report.
2. Getting the Credit
Credit reports in US contain all of the negative and positive information of how you’ve handled the credit. Officially the history starts building when you get a credit from the lender, who reports to your account and provide payment reports to one or all of the CRAs.
