My wife has just received her SSN due to getting EAD after my filing for I-485 in GC processing. I have a good credit history due to being here for 6+ years and having mortgage etc. My wife has a number of add on cards but as she did not have SSN, I do not think that she has a credit file in her name. Any ideas on what is the quickest and most efficient way for her to establish her credit history. Will the card companies be open to converted the add-on cards to independent cards with my guarantee. Can the adding of her to mortgage result in her credit file.

Any suggestions will be very helpful

Why not try checking whether she has a credit file? You may be pleasantly surprised

If your wife has been getting any pre-approved offers in her name alone in the mail, it's likely she has some sort of a credit file.

Hi there, i have been in the same situation 7 months ago and now i have avg 720.

if i was youher just follow the next steps and you will get to where i am now.

1. Add her to your credit cards as authorized user (AU) - just call them and tell them that you want to add an AU and give them her SSN and name (make sure you are adding her to old cards who have no late payments on)
** keywords are OLD cards with LARGE limit.
2. Open bank accounts with the SSN (you will likely need to bring the actual SSN Card with you and some id`s (passportdrivers licenseEAD) if she has drivers license it will be best.
** I opened in BOA, CITI, CHASE.
3. Open credit monitoring service with TrueCredit (Transunion) [www.TrueCredit.com]and experian (tripple advantage) [http://www.experian.com/]. they will verify you and ask you to fax them copy of your SSN card and bills and stuff. do it.
** now you have a credit file open and you have just saved yourself a month waiting.
4. there are two options now, if you have her on a nice old high limit card it may be good to try and apply for a "real" card, if not you can go for a secure card.
I was added on 4 avg 10 year old cards with avg 10k limit and got a real card from B)A and CITI and CHASE.
** make sure you do something like an AOR but make sure you dont apply to more than 7 cards.
5. put some bills under her name and SSN but make sure to pay them on time.
6. get her a job with paystubs since they report to the credit.
7. wait 9 months
8. do CLI on all real cards.
9. wait 3 more months and 'mature' the secure cards.
10. BUMPAGE your inqs and AOR.
11. CLI again every 6 months.

make sure you do the regular things, dont go over %35 on each card and all that....

she will have stellar credit.

let me know if you need any help.

Edit by Moderator: Personal information removed.

pashu said:My wife has a number of add on cards but as she did not have SSN, I do not think that she has a credit file in her nameIf she has add on cards, name and address; she has a credit file.

xoneinax said:pashu said:My wife has a number of add on cards but as she did not have SSN, I do not think that she has a credit file in her nameIf she has add on cards, name and address; she has a credit file.

thing is this, a credit file can be a single entry BUT they have declined me at first for insufficiant credit history, he is trying to establish minimal credit history and not technicly to have a single entry on file. thus the bank accounts inqs the credit monitoring and bills and credit cards suggestions i made.

All of this could have been done even when your wife just had an ITIN.

bozo007 said:All of this could have been done even when your wife just had an ITIN.

In many cases, there is no ITIN as the wife just arrived and then in a few months got EAD/SSN, which is now put on tax-file.

I just read notBRADPITT's suggestions and they are v good , am going to implement these as well. I tried to pull her free annual credit report but the CR reported that they do not have a match or something.

I have added her to my cards but not to the oldest one. I still have to do that!! thanks all!

prastogi said:to get a "secured" card through a bank/CUHad no prior relationship with BofA and went through BofA. Had to open and keep a $500 savings account and pay a $19 or etc annual fee. Just charged a little bit each month and scheduled an automatic payment to pay it off or overpay it. Wells Fargo has a cheap one too, but I think it had more paperwork to fill out or something.

The only thing from notBradPitt's post I disagre with is #6, about the job reporting to credit. Employment does not report to your credit report until either you provide it to the bureau, or a lender provides it to a bureau at application

You can have credit score even without SSN, you just can't "find" it.

Is she was auth. user on your cards she can have a better score than you.