<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Kremmen:
The USA is so amazing that way. The most you'll get in Australia on a new application with no documentation is about A$500. And even that's a maybe.
Here, the banks really dislike giving you a decent limit to start with or raising credit limits when you actually want them to. They prefer to let their computers send out automated letters to good customers. So, once you have a card, the sky's the limit.
For example, while on the highest earnings I'd ever had, I asked a bank for a limit increase on my gold Visa, fully documented, and they declined it. Wouldn't give me a cent more. Since I lost that job, I've not worked much ... and they've sent me a series of "tick the box for an increase" letters which have increased my limit to more than triple what it was when they declined my request!</font>
Kremmen,
I am an Aussie living in USA and have learned the huge differnece in the way things work here.....currently applying for a mortgage so very familiar with this.
Everything here revolves around your credit score and history. This is stored and calculated by central agencies and it has just about everything about you you can think of. So for instance, on a mortgage (over 500k) if you have a high enough credit score (over 700) you can get the same rate without proving income (known as stated income) because they look at your score and history and say that is a better indicator that you will reliably repay the loan than a job history (people lose jobs all the time).
In Australia there is nor central credit score/history system so the banks rely on their own history or other things you can prove to them (statement from other loans) but are willing to take on less risk.
Based on my credit score here I am planning to finance 100% of the price of the home - and they are willing to lend me the money.
Just FYI. Obviously there are pros and cons of each system.