Credit Report
Whenever you ask for credit from a bank or a credit card company, your information is sent to a credit bureau, in order to verify if you can apply for credit. The stored information is called Credit Report: it’s the history of your past credits, debts, payments and bankruptcy. Credit Report is important, since it is used to determine if you’re a reliable payer and how much credit you can be given. This record is regularly updated and determines the annual percentage rate.
Having a good Credit Report is very important if you’re going to ask for credit. There are also other issues that determine if you can be given credit and to what extent, and they are:
the payment record: if you already have too many debts, your “credit rating” will lower (and you may think about asking for help from a debt consolidation company);
control of debt: if you’re living beyond your possibilities, it’s more difficult to get a credit, since lenders realize that you cannot control your money;
responsibility and stability are keywords to get a credit; keeping a job and living in the same home for a few years is considered a good sign.
Credit Report is usually limited to your country, so if you move to another country you will have no credit history. This may be “bad”, since with no Credit Report, you could be refused a credit card and also you may not be able to get a credit if you need it: remember that no credit history means also that there is no evidence you can repay your debts. You may want to bring evidence, so you can ask for your Credit Report from your country (in the USA you can do this once every year), and then use it to apply for credit or credit cards.