I will soon gain employment at a shop that buys in and sells computer games. Once I have my social security number I can work in a place with a pleasant and outgoing manager who's losing his hair at an early age, an assistant manager who doesn't enjoy the idea of being customer-friendly, and a few games-obsessed colleagues.
During the interview, I discussed how the shop reminded me of the place I used to work. I wonder if working there will make me more homesick than any phone calls with the family I've made.
There's a lot of questions on my mind regarding processes and things to do, but it's all rather subjective and speculative. Still, while they're in the head:
1. What's the best way to increase credit rating quickly? I believe other family members have wrecked Jamie's credit rating, so I can only assume we should apply for credit cards with ridiculous interest rates, pay for groceries on them - a different card used every week - and pay the cards back as soon as the bills roll in.
2. What options are out there for American students, regarding loans? I know Jamie would love to go back to school again, and part of the reason I enjoyed the prospect of moving here was giving her the option of completing her work, but I do know we'll have to deal with loans and debt and all that scary stuff. Is a student loan payable within X months/years of leaving school, regardless of the job the student got into, or is it only payable once the student earns a certain amount per year?
3. Now that things are getting closer to being settled, are there any requests from English people, for items I can purchase and post to them? Given we're not earning money yet, if you want anything pricey we'd need the money by Paypal first - and if you only want a small trinket, I'm sure we could attempt to do some kind of transatlantic swap, where foods and drinks come our way.
I think that's it. There must be more, but it's not coming to me right now.
As for student loans, there are also scholarships, and federal grants, which is basically free money towards your education. My experience with school loans is that they're pretty manageable. I think the interest rates just went up this summer but even with that it shouldn't be TOO bad. of course it depends on how many loans you take out but for me my school loans were infintely better than my credit card debts. with school loans I think there are usually 2 types, 1 where you start paying interest on it right away and the other where interest is deferred until after you graduate. As far as I know, student loans are payable whenever, it doesn't have to wait until the student starts earning a certain amount of money.
I hope this helps at least a little? good luck! :)
As for things to ship over..........is C4 cheaper in the US?
xx
xx
http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/index.jsp
Tips on getting a good credit score:
http://www.myfico.com/CreditEducation/ImproveYourScore.aspx
Hope that helps!
Best way to get better credit is, as you said, to get a card and pay the bills on time. Easiest cards to get are the one-store-only cards -- car repair shops offer them, notably.
A rough guide to your credit score is the quality of the pre-approved credit card offers that will come to infest your mailbox. Once you start getting offers for cards without an annual fee, pick one up and don't carry a balance on it long enough for the vast interest rate to kick in.
I should point out that I expect to graduate university without any student loan debts -- I'm working full time, my employer reimburses $2000 of school expenses per year, and I'm doing as much of my degree as possible at a community college, which is much cheaper ($20ish / credit hour). So it's possible, although you don't get much free time...
There are some KICKASS My Little Ponies I'd love you to buy for me when I get the money to paypal you. would you be up for that? *hugs*
Is there any food over here you want shipped your way? Chocolate? Crisps? Or anything else Englishy?