 TITLE: Do Credit Cards Require Citizenship? CONTENT: Using Your New Card to Build Credit in the U.S.\n-----------------------------------------------\nMost major credit issuers will report your new credit card to the major U.S. credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. As a result, getting and using the card can help you establish or build your credit in the U.S. because your on-time payments will be reflected on your credit report.\nThe card issuer can send your information to the credit bureaus even if you don't have an SSN. And the bureaus can establish and track your credit based on other identifiers, such as your name and ITIN.\nIf you get an SSN later, you can contact your issuer and update your credit card account with your SSN. The card issuer can then send your updated information to the credit bureaus, tying all your information together.\nBut building good credit requires responsible credit use. Having an account with a history of on-time payments can help, as will only using a small portion of your card's credit card limit, since the amount of credit you're using is an important credit scoring factor.\nAs you establish and build your credit, you can also sign up for free credit monitoring with Experian to track your credit report and credit score if you have an SSN. Or, you can use your ITIN and mail a request for your credit report to each of the credit bureaus using the form from AnnualCreditReport.com. END