Wow! 840 is pretty impressive in this day and age.eeuunikkeiexpat wrote: ↑Wed Feb 06, 2019 1:25 pmNot necessarily, in the decade after I left, my US Empire credit score increased and now sits at 840 with both TransUnion and Experian. For the record, I am a pay in full and on time guy.
Regarding credit offers, it is still impossible for this permanent resident to get a Cuenta Corriente or a Chile credit card, but who needs them when I've done fine without. Screw the banks it they think a newly arrived Peruvian bringing no resources making the minimum wage on a possible false work contract deserves millions in credit just because of "official" Chile income.
Around 2007 I went to a dealership and bought a car outright with cash. Except I made the mistake of thinking I could just write them a personal check for the amount. So I wrote the check and they were gobsmacked. Then they ran my credit report and found I had 830 and they were gobsmacked again saying they couldn't remember having a customer with as high a FICO...but still they couldnt just let me pay with a personal check. I was just confused why they were gobsmacked and why they were running my credit to begin with since I was paying for it outright. I guess I figured they could just call the bank or whatever and make sure the money was there once it got to this point, but even that wasn't going to cut the mustard
Then they had to write a full on loan for the car ANYWAY...just in case my check bounced. Now I was gobsmacked. They assured me that the loan would only kick in if the check bounced. I thought for sure they were scamming me into a loan. It took hours and hours just to pay for this car with cash, albeit with a check. I figured how else would anyone pay for a car in cash? It never occurred to me that someone would bring in physical cash or a cashiers check.
After the fact I realized what they were thinking and understood they didn't want me driving off the lot with a vehicle and just a personal check. I supposed I should have gone in with a duffel bag full of cash...of course then I would have triggered some bank withdrawal rules trying to take out so much cash, and if I tried to do it on the sneak, I would have been hit with structuring. Of course this all before the days of me even knowing about such things. I suppose I could have used a cashiers check, but at the time I had never used a cashiers check but once or twice in my life in the US and usually it was just a money order for an insignificant amount of money to satisfy some bureaucracy of something