welcome MrSal to the USA and (recently) to these forums.
I'm wondering how you consider the banking system to be 'subpar' compared to Portugal. I'm not saying it isn't - I am just wondering what you see here that you think should be improved.
For starters, establishing a credit history starts with getting credit of some sort. For most people that will be a credit card (CC) but that could also be a mortgage or a car loan (ew!). If you don't have a mortgage or a car loan then the simplest method will be to get a credit card. There are hundreds (if not thousands) of CCs to choose from, but I'd look for one that has no annual fee. So long as you can pay off your balance every month (a mustachian thing to do) I wouldn't worry about what how high the APR is.
The problem is that you might get rejected from many credit cards because you have no credit-card history. It's kind of a chicken-and-egg thing... you need a card to establish credit history, but you sometimes can't get a cc because you have no credit history.
The easiest way around this IMO is to talk to your bank and see if they have a no-fee cc they can offer you. Once you have had that for a year or two (and are in good standing) it will be much easier to apply for another card - perhaps one that comes with rewards or frequent flier miles.
As for banks, I have TD Bank and have found them to be very helpful with very good hours. I had (past tense) Bank of America and found them to be very difficult to deal with and constantly trying to apply fees to everything. IMO whatever bank you have in your town will probably work out fine as long as you know what the terms are (e.g. how much you need to keep in your account/month to avoid a fee).
Thanks for your reply.
Yes that was my worry. Because companies ask for credit history to get a CC but I have none ... but yet, in order to start a history you need a CC. Just like you said... chicken and the egg.
Well... My/Our house (both my wife's and mine) the mortgage is only under her name. Maybe I could ask the name to put the mortgage on my name as well? Is that possible to do without being a "new" contract and hence being as if paying closing fees and such again?
As for the banking system, checks here are commonly used. In my country I never used a check in my life! There are almost no fees whatsoever for making transfers between banks. There is a central system ran by the central bank and you can do everything from the ATM such as pay all utility bills, pay for ticket shows, pay your taxes ... transfer funds... charge your cellphone with money ... etc etc...
There is also a system provided by all the banks, which your CC number never gets out to the internet. Instead you assign a $$ amount/limit and the bank creates a virtual CC number that is only good for that dollar amount. And we've had this for 20 years already these type of services.
Everything can be done through the ATM instead of multiple portals. Even when you use an online store or purchase tickets you can have the option to pay with CC on a certain merchant website or instead pay by reference and code entity thru the ATM.
As for CC's ... of course I pay everything in full I only use CC's for the benefits and don't ever carry debt.
I believe the only CC i ever carried debt is a portuguese one that gives 5% cash back monthly but only if my max payment is 50% so that's why I do it, which in essence translates to around a 3.4% cashback but since i make money out of it I'm cool with that - (I make about 5000 dollars a year risk free with this card... a net return RISK FREE of 50-70% a year ... simply because I use the CC to buy... Treasury Bills of my country :D )