I would like to share my experience with US credit cards as a non-resident, as I believe some other people may be interested. By non-resident I mean that I lived in the US for two years, as a non-resident alien. This allowed me to get a SSN, open a bank account, get a real US address. This happened about 5 years ago, and now my FICO score is approx 770.
This post is not intended as a guide to get a US credit card by faking your resident status. I am sure most credit card companies don't want that, and it may be illegal. This is about maintaining the cards I got while there, and applying for new ones.
My anecdotal evidence:
- Bank account: my FCU allowed me to change the address to a foreign address, and continues to offer its services. I am using this bank account to pay my cards, and it would be very difficult otherwise (there is no other way to pay US credit cards, and it's difficult to open a US bank account from abroad -- see next point).
- Charles Schwab: they have an international account that you can open from abroad (it's not completely trivial, some paperwork involved). It's intended for investments, but it offers some basic checking account services: a debit card, and the possibility to do payments. That's enough to feed a credit card.
- Chase: they allowed me to change my address to a foreign one, and they send replacements cards abroad. Not only that, but I could later apply for more cards. For a new card, they asked for a US address where to ship it, and then allowed me to change it to a foreign one. However, when I activated the new card, I had to go through some extra verification steps (I don't know if because of the new mailing address, the foreign IP when I connected, or what). As usual for the US banking system, the identity verification was a joke (last 4 digits of SSN, random question whether you lived near that street, etc.).
My wife tried to get a replacement card abroad and they weren't so helpful. It may be because she only has a free card (I pay an annual fee). We closed that card, so I am not sure if that could have been solved. - Discover: they also allowed a foreign address. I haven't applied for any new card.
- Capital one: a joke. I applied with an US address, and I had my card sent to me by a friend. As with Chase, the activation was not straightforward. However, in their case they could not verify my identify. I sent them plenty of documents, but they were not happy and they refused to tell me what was wrong with them. I asked whether the fact that I am abroad was a problem, and they couldn't answer. Notice that it all started because when they asked in what counties I used to live, I could not remember it. Therefore their proof of identity relies on whether people know the name of counties. I asked to close the account, and they obliged. (I also asked how it is possible that I can close an account over the phone if I am not the verified owner, and they couldn't answer).
Not a big loss: the credit line that they offered was approx 1/40th of the credit line I have on my other cards, so probably they didn't like my business.
Lesson I learned: if you apply from US credit cards from abroad, be ready to do a slightly more complicated verification step to activate the card the first time. Keep google maps open so you can check in what county you used to live. Avoid Capital One.
Submitted May 03, 2019 at 06:05AM by RoastedRhino http://bit.ly/2VGjIFY
