Koebler.net Blog

When moving to the US, many things are different than from the country you come from. One of the most important things, is to keep you credit record as clean as possible. Here is what that is all about:

There are 3 credit agencies ( Transunion, Experian, and Equifax ) in the US. When you have a credit card, phone bills, electricity, loans (such as for car, house, education) or anything that you would pay on a regular basis, those companies with whom you have a contract or get a bill from report to the 3 credit agencies whether you pay on time, your credit limit, your high balance and your current outstanding bill amount. The credit agencies keep this information for 7 years.

If you pay on time and keep relatively low amounts on your cards, then you have a good or high credit score. Whenever you want things like a new credit card, a loan to buy a house or car, etc, that company asks the credit agencies what your score is. The higher the score, the better interest rate you receive for the new loan or line of credit.

So you are allowed to get 1 credit report per year from each of the 3 credit agencies. Normally, you would request this report and then check through it to make sure it is correct. If there is a mistake, then you call around to get it fixed. Since you’re only allowed 1 free one per year, it’s best not to request all 3 in the same month. You normally request 1 credit report and then 4 months later request another credit report from the 2nd agency and then 4 months later request another from the 3rd agency. They might have changed their policy by now, not quite sure…

The problem with making a bad record is that when you return to the US, you will have trouble again getting credit because now you have a credit report that has bad stuff on it. The way to fix this is when you do start to have an apartment or have to pay electricity, you should get it in your name and then make payments on-time so that you start to build up a good credit history. So make sure you can pay your bills and play it smart.

It is also a good idea to request a credit report every 4 months in general, so that you can also see what is going on and what record you have. The only thing is that they appear to have just changed this recently, so that only US IP-addresses can request the report.

Note: Thanks to my sister Gabriele for this information.