Warning: I am about to go on a rant! If you don't wish to hear my complaints, please DO NOT read any further!
I would have never guessed that moving to the USA could be as challenging as it has been...in a bureaucratic-red-tape-kind-of-way, that is.
I have posted before about the challenges....see this post about getting a SSN, if you need a refresher.
Once again, we are finding that unless you are 'on the records' in the USA, they don't want to know you!
When we first moved here, we bought a house and got approved for a mortgage because Kevin's employer has an arrangement with a mortgage company who gets all of their international relocation business. If it hadn't been for that arrangement, we would have been up a creek because we didn't have a US credit history.
Despite the fact that we own a home, have a mortgage, and have perfect credit, and numerous investments in TWO other countries, we could not qualify for credit cards in the USA. We are Canadians moving from Switzerland (banking capital of the universe...and one of the most secure banking countries in the world. Guess what? We had no trouble getting credit cards in Switzerland!)....it isn't like we moved here from Tibet!
The only way that the good old Bank of America was prepared to give us credit cards, was if they were secured credit cards. Meaning, I give them $300 of my hard earned money for them to hold, without earning any interest on it, and they will give me a credit card with a $300 limit. It's ludicrous. They didn't even bother to check what kind of assets we have, or what our credit ratings are in Canada or Switzerland, because quite frankly, they don't care.
So we lived on cash alone for the first 6 months that we were living here. Not necessarily a bad thing, but credit is a very important thing to have too. After 6 months of living in the USA, and paying the mortgage and utility bills on time every month, Kevin finally qualified for a credit card with a measly limit. In order for me to get a credit card though, we finally had to just get the secured card.
The credit card issue wasn't even the worst.
Kevin recently applied for a SAVINGS ACCOUNT with the Bank of America (you know, the kind of account where you put money IN and leave it there?!). Guess what the result was?
You guessed it............request DENIED!
Can you believe that?!
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3 comments:
The main problem you're having is going with BofA. They are horrible. Once you are a part of their system, there are many loops they make you jump through to get "good" customer service and they have tiny little fees for everything that really add up. I have dealt with them on and off since I was 18, and each time it has been a disaster. I recommend Washington Mutual, American Express, or CitiBank. Good luck.
Drats! How annoying. I'm with SwissJordanMom; I'd look elsewhere. I don't know anyone who likes BofA. We're really happy with JPMorgan/Chase.
Well, there is a story to everything, right? The reason we went with BofA was because they were the only bank that would give us an account without an address. We needed to set up an account before we bought our house so that we would have the funds in the country for the down payment. I think in the beginning, we would have had the credit card issue no matter where we went to bank, because I have had Canadian friends tell me the same thing about secured credit cards. Having said that, we are definately ready to switch banks. Thanks for the recommendations.
One question though, when you deal with a smaller bank, and they don't have bank machines on every corner like BofA, do you end up having to pay fees for using other bank's ATMs? The whole system in the USA is different than in Canada. We only have 4 major banks....not a zillion little ones.
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