Credit History of Immigrants
Credit history usually applies to only one country. Even within the same credit card network, information is not shared between different countries. For example, if a person has been living in Canada for many years and then moves to the United States, when they apply for credit cards or a mortgage in the U.S., they would usually not be approved because of a lack of credit history, even if they had an excellent credit rating in their home country and even if they had a very high salary in their home country.
An immigrant must establish a credit history from scratch in the new country. Therefore, it is usually very difficult for immigrants to obtain credit cards and mortgages until after they have worked in the new country with a stable income for several years.
Some credit card companies (e.g. American Express) can transfer credit cards from one country to another and this way help starting a credit history.
Read more about this topic: Credit History
Famous quotes containing the words credit, history and/or immigrants:
“If you want to be on good terms with everyone in this world, sell goods on credit and never ask for payment.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The history of a soldier’s wound beguiles the pain of it.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“The admission of Oriental immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our people has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in our treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulations secured by diplomatic negotiations. I sincerely hope that we may continue to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immigration without unnecessary friction and by mutual concessions between self-respecting governments.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)