Moving to Houston from Alberta - questions galore

[jingram]

Hello, We are relocating to Houston from Alberta in the next couple months, I have found this forum to be extremely helpful. Canukgal, can you tell me what your experience was with setting up utilities, phones, etc. I have heard about the credit rating not transferring, how big of a problem is it? Also, do you have kids? Is there any problems with putting Canadian kids into the school system? I have a million more questions but this will do for starters!

[CanTex]

Originally Posted by jingram

Hello, We are relocating to Houston from Alberta in the next couple months, I have found this forum to be extremely helpful. Canukgal, can you tell me what your experience was with setting up utilities, phones, etc. I have heard about the credit rating not transferring, how big of a problem is it? Also, do you have kids? Is there any problems with putting Canadian kids into the school system? I have a million more questions but this will do for starters!

I made this move just over 10 years ago. First to Houston, then moves to other U.S. locations since then, now back to Houston.

You do start over on your credit history and rating, so you may have to put deposits down for some of the utilities. Before you leave, get copies of your bill payment history for each utility -- I was able to get my electricity company here to waive the deposit once I could prove to them I had an excellent history.

If you have an American Express card, they will transfer your account to the U.S., so that gives you a quicker start on re-establishing some credit history. If you're relocating through your employer and dealing with a large relocation company, most of them have special arrangements with some of the largest mortgage providers so your lack of U.S. credit history is not an issue.