KumaLumaJuma

It’s not, really, although it’s a bit more nuanced than that.

Credit scores are now taking in more information than ever, so things like your debt repayments as a % of your income (affordability) are feeding in as well.

For the people carrying credit card debt, one CRA might give you a better score if you carry a balance >0 but <25% of your total credit limit, and another it could be 0 to 40% so you will see some score variability.

If your utilisation is higher your score may suffer. This is only one aspect, though. Repayments on other debt (mortgages, utilities, mobile phones) play a part, as do things like voter registration and the time you have kept open your accounts. TransUnion is now incorporating BNPL (like Klarna) data for some reporting, although not sure it feeds into the score view yet).

I would highly recommend using whatever free apps are available for each of the CRAs (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax are the three main providers) to monitor your score.

For TransUnion you should be able to use the Credit Karma app in both the US and UK, and in the UK you also have the ClearScore app for Equifax score.

Experian in the UK is on the process of removing 3rd party app access (would have been MoneySaving Expert app before, but that’s moving to TransUnion).

Can’t argue there, but I do recommend a train ticket app for e-tickets

Why would you get a ticket for the tube/bus/overground? You can now pay with any contactless card or apple/android pay.

A parliament has a maximum term of 5 years. Any change to the date of the next election will have a direct impact on the latest date of the next election.

https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/

Depends on whether or not there is a snap election this year…

The whole settlement scheme has been a disaster. uKVI has historically been a truly terrible organisation. I personally have been given false information from them on more than one occasion so this doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

Why is extraordinarily ridiculous though, is why someone from the EU that already had permanent residency wouldn’t just have that acknowledged or have automatically moved onto the new scheme. UKVI will already have her details on file electronically with biometric enrolment data.

Anything to make peoples lives miserable, in yet another clear implementation of government policy. The cruelty is the point.

Pretty sure the Cuban population tends to vote republican because of the press about democrats being socialist wannabes or whatever.

Didn’t Obama loosen restrictions on Cuba and the Trump put it back to how it was before?

True, although paying in upfront doesn’t exempt immigrants from also paying the relevant taxes that cover healthcare, no double taxation protections here.

So much cheaper than the UK.

It’s something like £2k ($2,500) for the fees (for 2.5-3years, depending on visa type), plus a buy in for NHS services, approximately £1k/year ($1,300 x 2.5-3) for the length of your visa.

6 years to become a citizen, if you’re not married to a Brit, or 5 if you are.

It is in excess of £10k over the 5-6 years to get to the point of permanent residence (£2,300) which you can then follow up with citizenship (£1,580).

How weird to see where I went to school on the news in this way and yet rather unsurprising given the culture in the area.

I left in 2013, I also haven’t gone back but it’s definitely on my list.

Really loved it, lovely people and the food is obviously epic! Were you mainland?

That is indeed simple, I don’t know if I have a market near me but I’m going into London tomorrow anyway, I’m sure I can find some while I’m down there