Moving to USA from Canada

I moved to the US, but have since came back home.
Yup, your Canadian credit rating means squat, you start with zero credit. Not ideal, it was even a huge hassle even to get a cell phone. I had to put up $500 to get a secured credit card. After about 6 months of making purchases and paying promptly, I got my $500 back and had my credit limit increased.
It may be worth mentioning that I moved there in 2001, when Canadian banks like TD did not have such a prominent US presence. Not sure if there is anything they can do since you have been dealing with them in Canada. Doubt it, but it may not hurt to ask.
If you are moving permanently, or even for several years, I would close all Canadian accounts but one. CRA needs to know you cut ties with Canada, else you would be subject to Canadian tax. CRA also does not look favorably on keeping Canadian investment properties and the like.
Your RRSPs…you can leave them, but obviously cannot add to them. Also, I had to move them into a term deposit, for some reason I was not allowed to leave them in mutual funds while being a non-resident…but maybe that was something specific to the funds I was in or the financial institutions I dealt with.

You can get a TD aeropeso US $ card, yes from TD. There are lots more TD branches in the east coast of US nowadays. You can open up accounts in one of those TD branches and set up transfers to your Canadian accounts.

But you'll have to establish your US credit history from scratch. A family member went to the US to work, and had to do that.

they told me that I can apply at a TD branch in USA for a Visa card and my credit history from Canada will be taken into consideration
Seems like I will go this way

I'm no expert in US credit profile except it seems US and Canada credit agencies don't "talk" to one another. Luckily TD bought the chase bank a few years back and has quite the presence in the east coast of the US. If you want to piss off a Bastannnner remind them that their beloved "Gaaaaaden" is actually the TD garden and stands for Toronto Dominion.

I'd recommend opening a TD us account which you can do in Canada (don't confuse this with a USD account with TD CT Canada) then TD will consider your Canadian history for building credit in the USA.

Probably your best foot in the door, after half a year of owning a US issued TD credit card, apply for a couple more and build your US credit existence.

How do you move from USA from Canada?

I lived in Boston for a few years for school. When I moved down, the only credit card they allowed me to get was the " Secured" one where they keep a deposit since I had no credit in the states and no Social Security number. Since I was only going to be there for a few years I never bothered with the whole building credit deal. But I would say get a social security number asap since application to anything always require one anyways, just one less hoop to jump through later. You can try to see if TD bank down in Boston will recognize your credit score, might give you a head start. But if you're looking for convenience of bank machines/branches in Boston, it doesn't beat Bank of America, ATMs everywhere and most major city across the states as well, TD a little harder to find as you move south. Enjoy Boston, it's a great city to live in! Also just a fyi. you can convert your drivers license into a MA Drivers license pretty easily, just go down to the DMV once you have a proof of address and SS# or SS# denial letter. Beats carrying around your passport for ID or getting weird looks from people saying where the heck is Alberta...

I work in Calgary to a company that has offices across USA
I asked to move to Boston
They said yes.

What has this got to do with the OP's credit rating question?

jerryhung wrote: ↑I think he meant your title with 2 "from"
Moving from USA from Canada


Can I ask the reason for the move? much higher salary? just want a new city? any family members?
I don't imagine Boston is cheap to live in

Congrats

The salary will be converted to USD using 0.9 as a factor, you may say is a little increase - here in Calgary the economy depends too much on oil prices so I wanted not to be dependent on the oil jobs.... Also more diversity in Boston (I am an emigrant to Canada I don't have relatives in North America, my wife has more chances there than Calgary), Boston is closer to Europe....

Not sure about your financial condition but hsbc offers a global program for establishing accounts and credit in different countries. It is called hsbc premier and if you are a member of it in one country, for example in canada, you can open a u.s checking acct,savings acct and get credit card from them. Will still be treated as a newcomer for the 6 months but after that they report it to credit bureaus and you have credit history and credit score. Then you can apply different cc's.
Minimum requirement to have premier is 100k in Canada. Basically you are using their internal credit information system at the beginning instead of getting a secured cc.
I heard you can do the same thing with Amex. I would call them if i were you but speak with a supervisor because people answering phones there misinform the customers a lot.

Verizon is who you want to deal with for a cell phone as they can actually pull and use your Canadian credit score.

Boston is a lovely city. Unfortunately, RedFlagDeals is slightly less useful when you live in the USA.

coolwasabi wrote: ↑Boston is a lovely city. Unfortunately, RedFlagDeals is slightly less useful when you live in the USA.

What's the American equivalent to RFD??

FWIW, RBC does allow you to open an account that does US banking. Everything's in USD, including its own Visa card. It shares ATM through PNC bank.

flyguy3bua wrote: ↑What's the American equivalent to RFD??

FWIW, RBC does allow you to open an account that does US banking. Everything's in USD, including its own Visa card. It shares ATM through PNC bank.

Slickdeals.net is the american equivalent... it's actually way bigger of a forum then RFD.