Credit History can be imagined as a series of your paid and unpaid debts. It includes all Financial Institutions and indicates your debt rating.

Your Credit History begins when you receive your first Credit Card: Visa, Master Card, or Cards from the stores like: Zellers, Canadian Tire, The Bay, Sears, etc. It makes no difference, what kind of Credit Card you have - your history goes on. Of course, it is more preferable to have Bank Cards, but it is not easy for new immigrants to get them. To receive a Credit Card one should have a job (the longer you work - the better). Sometimes, if a person started to work recently, it is possible to make a Security Deposit. But the Security Deposit is usually "frozen" by the Bank for two years. More than that, the sum of Security Deposit is determined by the Bank. For example, it you want a Credit Card for $1,000, your Security Deposit will be $2,000.

There is another way to get a Credit Card - ask your friends or relatives, who have sufficient Credit History to be your co-signers. It means that they will be responsible for your debts in case you cannot pay them. People, who take a role of co-signers, should be very cautious if they do it for somebody, whom they do not know very well, because if the applicant cannot pay his debts, you will have to pay.

It does not make any difference for good Credit History whether you have Visa for $500 or for $3,000. The main thing is to pay your financial obligations and have good rating.

If you have your Credit History verified by a bank worker, he looks for the following information:

• Your name and SIN number;
• Your present and your previous address;
• Place of work and your job;
• All information on previous verifications of your Credit History (date, organization, telephone number).

Then there comes a list of places where you worked.

The next is your bank accounts and their addresses.

The last is the list of your bank obligations (credit lines, Bank Cards, Credit Cards from stores, loans) and also limit and balance on these accounts. On the same line we can see the letter R and numbers from 0 to 9. If we see R0, it means, that the balance is paid off. If there is R1, it means, that you accurately pay every month (even if it is minimum payment). The higher the rating the worse. Maximum rating is R9, but even R4 or R5 is bad enough.

In cases when a person has bad Credit History, it can be improved officially. There is a certain procedure of entering data on Credit debts. The procedure is very long. Not all financial institutions want to follow it step by step. If a financial institution did not follow all the rules of this procedure, you may indicate it and recall the information on your Credit History. This is the way to improve your rating. There are special institutions, which watch if the Credit History information is entered in accordance with the rules.

You can verify your Credit History at EQUIFAX CANADA INC; the address is 110 Sheppard Avenue East, 2-nd floor. It is important for you to know that all the information on application for Credit Card, loans, and credit lines is entered in your Credit History. That is why, if you were refused a loan in a few organizations in a row, it is better to wait for a few months, than try to force your way through.

Put yourself in this clerk's place. He works at Scotia Bank and he is responsible for credits. If the clerk sees, that you were refused a credit in TD Bank, Royal Bank, Canada-Trust, CIBC, why in the world should he believe you and give you a credit? He will not give it today. Maybe later, but not today!