Hi, I'm American, my wife is now a permanent resident, originally from Australia. She's 39 years old, a high level executive earning over $150K/year, has held or holds premium credit cards from Australian and UK banks (HSBC, Commonwealth Bank ) and has a stellar credit history (no past dues, no defaults).
We moved (back for me) to the US over 6 months ago and, despite her financial history, she has not been able to obtain credit here!
She was able to purchase a car ($25K) on credit with the provision of having a CD account for the value of the car locked with the bank (Wells Fargo). She also was able to get a credit card with a credit limit of $2K provided she maintained that amount in a savings account as some sort of bond.
Since she travels to Asia frequently on business, she's tried to get a mileage point card without success (which is also impacting her credit score). Instead she has to use her foreign held cc to pay for her trips abroad!
She asked for her credit history, which shows she owes about 23K on the car (credit reports don't show how much money you have, just how much you borrow...) and whatever activity is on the credit card.
Is there anything she can do to get out of this absurd situation? I suggested we just pay off the car with the CD money so that the credit report won't show that debt anymore. We are looking at buying a 2nd car on credit and don't want to go through the same hassle as we had to with the first one.
In conclusion, I would think there are many fairly well off foreigners moving to the US in the same situation as my wife who are abusively denied credit (for how long?) because credit reporting agencies don't take non US history in consideration. Sounds like a business opportunity to me!