Credit Tips: Want to Keep my Credit Score While Out of the Country

Posted On: March 1, 2005

Author: davej
Joined: 01 Mar 2005
Posts: 1
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 10:41 am
Post subject: How not to lose your score while you’re out of States?

Hi!!

There’s a nagging problem I can’t talk with the banks about, so thought you might be able to help me out…

I had a FICO of 738, with no derogatory info whatsoever.. But then I took an overseas job (in Russia)… Now the problem is that I stopped using my credit cards and I realize that my score is sliding down (my last check returned 711) …There’s still 1.5 years before I come back and I hate to see my credit score die… Now there’s two reasons I don’t use credit… First, it’d cost me around $38 each time to transfer funds to my US checking account to pay off the credit cards.. (which I’m not too happy about obviously).. Second, I’m kinda wary of using credit cards in Russia (the number might end up in someone’s possession).. (but the latter wouldn’t be a problem, however, given you answered positively to the following question)

Now the question!! My wife has a checking account with a well-known Russian bank (which has an office in NYC too)… And here’s what I hope to get some answers for.. To keep my credit score alive and to dodge this $38 a piece transaction fee, I HOPE to be able to put the money in HER dollar account here in Russia, and have the US credit companies take the payment from a Russian account… Do you think they’ll do it?? And before you hand me a phone to call the banks, I’ll tell you why I’d rather NOT call ‘em…

When I was heading out of the US, I called them up and asked them to honor my non-US transactions, if any… However, I had HARD time with some of them since they wanted to close my lines seeing I was going out of the country for that long… Somehow I talked them out of that, and even assured the most persistent ones that I MIGHT be coming back soon and there should really be no fixed time frame for my absence… So some just kept the date until when I’m away open… NOW, I’m pretty sure if I called them and said “would you take funds from a Russian checking account?” they’d rather pull the plug on me than bother with that… And I don’t wanna have my cards closed, since no guarantee that my oldest ones won’t get hurt (hence the length of my credit history)… And I think you just can’t call a bank and have that kind of answer anonymously…, they’ll need to know my account # and stuff… So what I’m afraid of is that call might sort of be a point of no return - once they’ve learned what you’re up to, you might end up with less valid cards in your wallet…

If you’re still reading, there’s one more complication… Russian banks have an extra digit in their routing numbers, killing any attempt to try that number online…

Thank you for attention and I’d appreciate hearing your opinions!! And yeah, before the Board Monitor asks me, I found out about this board by googling for a forum that might help me But that’s not to say I’ll split once I get what I want, I’m here to stay!! (have a strong interest in the subject!!)

Last edited by davej on Wed Mar 02, 2005 1:47 am; edited 1 time in total

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Author: Verne
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Joined: 14 May 2003
Posts: 499
Location: Midwest
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 12:46 pm

Where are your credit card and bank statements going? Are you maintaining an address in the states?

If so, you could have whoever is picking up your mail make some small online purchases - preferrably small automatically recurring subscriptions to keep the cards active. Something like pogo.com for $4.95 a month for example (this is no endorsement) or something even cheaper. If it’s recurring you can forget about it. Find a $1.00 a month charity.

You might be able to do this from Russia but many internet card processors may reject a transaction from a foreign computer address so it might be easier for someone you trust to do it for you stateside.

Perhaps, I’m missing something and am all wet. I’ve never been in your situation and this is all I can come up with off the top of my head.

That said, I wouldn’t be overly worried about the score. As long as you don’t have any negative information or “derogs” on your credit reports, inactivity shouldn’t hurt you too much. At least nothing you couldn’t quickly recover from.

Verne

Any agreement that can be changed at any time, for any reason, is no agreement at all.

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Author: NightStar
Board Monitor
Joined: 07 Nov 2003
Posts: 2615
Location: Illinois
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 1:39 pm

You want to find a way to keep these accounts active to initiate a charge to the account periodically, the credit card companies are not going to keep these accounts open if they are inactive for too long… and if you come back you can ask that they re-open them, but for security purposes - most of them will insist on a new account being opened, instead of re-activating the old account.

I am not familiar either with out of country transactions, regardless of your fears, I think you should call the creditor and ask some questions.. and confirm that they have not closed your accounts to date… let them know you still consider yourself a customer and want to maintain open status on these accounts.

Even if they close, you have a pure payment history, and you may find one or two creditors that will reconsider opening the accounts. As soon as you get activity on these accounts, the scores will go back up.

I am really suprised you still have a credit score, I have seen some people that within 6 months of inactivity have their credit score drop off all together. It comes back though, once activity is picked back up.

Best Regards,
Pammila Phillis
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH
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Author: Polonius
Credit Expert (100+ Posts)
Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Posts: 498
Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 3:19 pm

Don’t be too concerned with your credit score. If you’re not using your cards, your score will drop from inactivity–but it will go up again once you return and begin using the cards once more. The drop in scores is meaningless. Do what you can to make sure you get mail sent to your listed address, though, and pay for an online credit monitoring system of some sort so you can make sure that a renewal card mailed to you isn’t picked up and misused (in either country).

Also, consider getting your own U. S. dollar account or adding your wife as an authorized user on your credit cards. I know Citibank has a presence in various major cities in Russia and lets you maintain accounts in dollars and rubles, with Internet access for bill pay and a wide range of services. See:

http://www.citibank.ru/russia/citione/eng/citione.htm

Polonius
“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend”

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