[Carl and Liz]

This message is geared to Americans but everyone is welcome to add their experiences. . .

When applying for credit in NZ do they use your American credit record or are you starting from scratch?

How did you figure out the tax issue? I usually do my own taxes but this years will be really complicated - we got married, sold some property and moved to a foreign country. Also, do we still have to pay Social Security in the US and, even though it's a few decades off, can we collect Social Security down in NZ? Any advice on how to sort this all out or who to hire?

What about investments and transferring money down here? I know that currency exchange is a factor in deciding whether to leave money in the US or bring it down to NZ. What about investing/saving for retirement and all that stuff you're supposed to do? How do you sort that out?

Thanks.

Regards,
Liz

[Moorf]

We're from the UK, but I am sure it's the same - credit references appear to start from scratch here. We haven't applied for credit but our bank here told us that we had nothing against our credit reference (whereas in the UK we had credit cards etc and obviously the records from these are not transferred to NZ) :nice1

[clg]

Quick answers to some questions. US credit does not matter here, you start from scratch but it is not hard to get. Keep a US bank account and credit card if you can. You will not pay SS unless you are still paid from the US, if you stay in NZ and retire you will not collect SS either, you will be on the NZ scheme.

Taxes, hire an accoutant, we will do that but don't have one yet. Too hard the first year with all of those things. There are accountants here that know US taxes the embassy here has some info.

Transfering funds is easy lots of threads here, timing it with exchange rates wondering if the US$ is going up or down is antoher matter. We are leaving retirement and investements alone in the US for now since we would get hit with penalites and/or taxes if we touched them.