Canadian working in the US, please recommend a beginner credit card.

Quote from Torontonian : I have to do some travel and some official purchases every month. I need to get a credit card here. I prefer one which gives maximum cash rewards. APR does not matter as I never carry a balance. A card with a fee is also fine. I can put down a 5K deposit for the secured card.

To see what credit card will pay you the most in rewards for your expected categorical spending pattern (airfare, hotel, auto rental, restaurants, gas, etc.) you might try this rewards calculator:
http://www.creditcardtuneup.com/

That calculator has both U.S. cards and Canadian cards.

Youre pretty much out of luck because every credit check they do will come back with "insufficient credit history" meaning theyre not going to approve you for anything.. Prior to 2008 this wouldnt have been a problem since they were passing out credit cards like candy.. but these days "insufficient credit history" just doesnt cut it anymore.. You might need to start with the limited credit cards available for "building credit" or a pre-paid credit card..(both of which are pretty terrible when it comes to rewards)

Quote from Torontonian : Hello all. I m from Toronto,Canada. Got transferred to the US operations in middle December. I m on a TN visa. I have to do some travel and some official purchases every month. I need to get a credit card here. I prefer one which gives maximum cash rewards. APR does not matter as I never carry a balance. A card with a fee is also fine. I can put down a 5K deposit for the secured card. I have excellent credit scores in Canada ( I know it does not count in the US, only amex allows you to transfer you Canadian amex history when you apply for one in the US , i dont have an amex account in Canada) I have the capital one aspire world mc in Canada. Cap one is my first choice. Please recommend all other options. By the way, a hello to all slickdeals members from redflagdeals.

Hey fellow Canuck. Here's my advice having gone through this last year:

1. Go to Wells Fargo or some other bank and get a secured credit card, and don't be stingy on the deposit, drop $2-3k to get a $2-3k limit. The higher the limit the better the FICO, the easier it will be to get CCs in the future.
2. If you have a Canadian Amex, call them up and have them flip you to the US version (they will do this on the spot using your Canadian credit history), if you don't have one...get one using a Canadian address and then flip it over in 6 months or so to add another CC to your US history.
3. Test the waters after 5-6 months, you should have enough history to get another card, from there it should be pretty easy to get almost any other card you want. My 3rd card was a Chase Freedom card, had no issues getting it.
4. Don't miss any payments, for *anything*, put everything (apartment, CCs, utilities, cable/internet) on auto-pay.

Doing this, I've got 3 US CC's, FICO in the 700s (like you I had near a 900 in Canada :/ but not bad for 10 months). The best mortgage rates are given in the upper 700's so that's your target score to get the best interest rates. If your schedule is sooner, do the mortgage on your Canadian credit (Wells Fargo will do this and many other banks) to qualify for the best rates.

Happy credit history building!

Rich...
(RFDer from Winnipeg)

Quote from Torontonian : Hello all. I m from Toronto,Canada. Got transferred to the US operations in middle December. I m on a TN visa. I have to do some travel and some official purchases every month. I need to get a credit card here. I prefer one which gives maximum cash rewards. APR does not matter as I never carry a balance. A card with a fee is also fine. I can put down a 5K deposit for the secured card. I have excellent credit scores in Canada ( I know it does not count in the US, only amex allows you to transfer you Canadian amex history when you apply for one in the US , i dont have an amex account in Canada) I have the capital one aspire world mc in Canada. Cap one is my first choice. Please recommend all other options. By the way, a hello to all slickdeals members from redflagdeals.

Agreed with previous poster, without credit history, you probably won't be able to get one of the unsecured rewards credit card. You will need to start out with a secured credit card, like Capital One offers, or the one the previous poster suggested

http://www.capitalone.com/creditc...edit-card/