Canadian Secured Credit Cards Are Good For New Immigrants

A few years ago when I was working with an earlier project with my company, I was required to get a U.S. credit card.

Being a resident of Canada I don't have U.S. citizenship or U.S. credit rating.

I felt the frustration one would have if they're in a new country. My good credit score and good credit practices didn't do me any good in another country.

Eventually I got a U.S. credit card with a small limit and it was secured by my companies reputation.

At the time I was frustrated because I've had excellent credit in Canada for 25 years. There was nothing to show that fact to a U.S. credit card company as Equifax U.S. didn't have any records of my credit standings.

New Immigrants to Canada required to re-start their credit.

I can imagine the frustration that a family who is immigrating into Canada might have. Even if they've had a house with mortgage, credit cards, lines of credits in their former country, they'll be forced to start all over again when they arrive in Canada.

Unless this family has a great deal of cash to work with they'll be forced to rent an apartment while they save up for a home. Renting doesn't affect your credit rating. They won't be able to get loans of any type unless they have sizable security deposits or other assets.

One of the quickest and easiest ways for the new immigrant to Canada to start their credit rating is to get a secured credit card. These credit cards can be obtained for as little as $75. The beauty of a secured credit card is that it reports to Equifax and TransUnion the same as a regular credit card. This means that it helps start a credit score in as little as one billing period.

Every family that immigrates to Canada has hopes and dreams of owning a home, car and living the Canadian lifestyle. A secured credit card might just be fastest and most cost effective way for them to start their credit rating and move on to that home mortgage for their family.

Monty Loree is the founder of http://www.canadian-money-advisor.ca which helps Canadians better understand their money, credit and the financial industry in Canada. In our financial podcasts, we are interviewing industry experts who give our visitors the truth about the financial industry. Canadian Money Advisor is an important source for Canadians to learn more about their money. See our Canadian Secured Credit Card descriptions. Canadian Secured Credit Card discussion

Credit Report - 101 Essentials

A Credit Report is essential for ever adult. It allows you information one your own financial position to allow lenders to give you credit. If you are about to apply for a loan then it's strongly recommended that you access your report up to six months before taking out the loan. This is advised because you will have time to correct any wrong information and pursue ways to lift your credit score on your credit report.

Getting a loan is essential in this day and age so if you want to head on the path of financial freedom (don't we all) then it's important you know what a Report is all about and how you can best make use of the information, this seems fairly logical so you'll be surprised to find out that over 75% of Americans don't know their Credit Score! and 20% have never even seen their Credit Score! So if you are reading this article then you are probably ahead of most people and therefore will get to the financial freedom path faster then most.

There are three main Report Bureaus that you can access your credit report from. It's important that you don't ask for your credit score as if you want get a free copy of your report.

The three Report Bureaus are: Experian (formally TRW), then Equifax, and TransUnion.

It's very important to understand what your credit report is exactly made up of. Here is a list of the following ingredients:

Payment History 35%
Amount Owed 30%
Length of Credit History 15%
New Credit 10%
Types of Credit Used 10%

It's important you know the ways to improve your credit score, so follow the following tip to get your score as good as it can be so creditors will only be too happy to loan your the money for your new house, with them being very confident you can make the repayments back. It most likely will provide you with a better interest rate and your terms and loan conditions will also be improved.

Credit Score Improvement Tips.

Refrain from getting loan consolidations.
This will effectively kill off you past history on all the loans you've had, seeing that your credit report and score's biggest factor and most important figure is your past payment history, then you need to maintain loans and finish them off with the financial institution you took them out with.

Keep Old Accounts
This is similar to the above point but with a difference. It's important I point out to you that having several accounts or lets say credit card accounts for example. The total available credit when compared to what you ow on the cards is a ration that the credit report will factor in to work out your Credit Score. The less that ration is - of if it surpassed a factor of 1 then you are bankrupt. So if you move over our debts on credit cards to one which has a lower interest rate it may be good for you in the short term but not in the long - as your available credit to debt become higher and there for a negative.

Resist the temptation for getting in store credit cards
Having many in store cards will show that your not the best saver and that your credit worthiness is not excellent. It could be a hit of as much as 20 points on your credit report rating. It also lowers your age of credit for each card.

I hope this information on getting your credit report has helped and you see the importance of your credit report and credit score.

Find online bad Credit Report at Credit-Reporter.net.