Many years ago when I made it into America, I sought insights on how to quickly get into the American financial system, understanding that there was no village to relocate to, if one cannot pay the bills (in Nigeria, if you become homeless in the city, you can move to your village!). I went to the foreign students office; they referred me to a woman, Maureen, in the account services.
Maureen gave me a small book on building credits, and told me three things:
- -You must build credit in America.
- -To do that, since you just arrived from Nigeria, call your bank or a credit card company, and ask for a prepaid credit card.
- -Where possible, buy everything with that card, and at the end of the month, pay things off. Do not carry a balance!
I did not have enough but I did send Chase $200, and they sent me a prepaid credit card. I did as she instructed; I picked an extra student job in the farm (Instrumentation Engineer, managing sensors and electronics in the university farm which covered hectares of land. Was an IT guy in Lagos). Within 3 months, Chase returned the deposit, and increased the card to $500. Then $1000, $5000, $20000, etc.
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Over the years, I have had a near-perfect credit score: hovering around 820-845 out of possible 850 with today at 828 (cyclical, by month end, it will hit ~840 due to reporting and payment cycles). And that has saved me tons of money because every bank considers me a low-risk borrower.
But there was something missing in what Maureen said: the rent I paid as a student was not used to model that credit. So, when Canada-based Binta knocked on the integration of that into credit reporting, I felt that it was a powerful business model. We invested in them last year, and today, I am happy to report that Tekedia Capital is making further investments.
Binta brings another layer to this: they will port your data from your native home country to North America so that unlike that barren record I began with, you do not begin from ground zero. They report all to Equifax.
Binta: go and support immigrants and new arrivals from around the world and give them financial support. Tekedia Capital is proud to support your mission.
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