All About Foreign Credit Cards

[QF_Flyer]

Mostly statements from Wise as I said in my post (I use Wise to pay my Amex US cards), as well as two statements from my HSBC US Premier account.

Is your Wise address linked to/showing your Aussie address then? I assume so? My Wise account was originally a Transferwise account opened in the UK, it's still linked to a UK address...haven't had any issue to date, but wonder what the go would be there.

HSBC Premier is an option - I opened my HSBC Premier AU & UK accounts independently of one another in each respective country (qualified based on the Aussie criteria and UK accepting overseas Premier qualification as overriding their others, but the US account seems to need US$5K paid in via ACH each month, anyone know if this is enforced, if you continue to qualify for Premier elsewhere?

 

[albyd]

HSBC Premier is an option - I opened my HSBC Premier AU & UK accounts independently of one another in each respective country (qualified based on the Aussie criteria and UK accepting overseas Premier qualification as overriding their others, but the US account seems to need US$5K paid in via ACH each month, anyone know if this is enforced, if you continue to qualify for Premier elsewhere?

I’ve had a US Premier relationship for some years now. Unless I’m grandfathered, I haven’t been depositing $US5k/month - I’ve qualified based on my AU Premier status.

 

[Mr He]

Finally went to Costco today, first time in a decade (even though I've been holding this Costco co-branded credit card for so long). Felt great to use the CC as the membership card to gain entry, and explored a bit there. Look at the 6-pack chewing gum, and the 15% off Luxury Escape gift cards! Just to name a few. A fun trip before Costco Docklands closes late this year. Hope to visit a bit more often before it's gone.

And the receipt captures my membership as "GC International", followed by an 11-digit membership number.

 

[nthd_nthd]

Finally went to Costco today, first time in a decade (even though I've been holding this Costco co-branded credit card for so long). Felt great to use the CC as the membership card to gain entry, and explored a bit there. Look at the 6-pack chewing gum, and the 15% off Luxury Escape gift cards! Just to name a few. A fun trip before Costco Docklands closes late this year. Hope to visit a bit more often before it's gone.

And the receipt captures my membership as "GC International", followed by an 11-digit membership number.
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I went to Costco looking for ALL Gift cards - however could not locate any gift card at all.

 

[Catweazle]

Are you folks are only applying for cards from English speaking nations unless you know the local language, like Mandarin or French? Do you use your Australian address or a foreign address when applying for the card?

I wonder what other perky cards we're missing out on because we don't speak their language...

 

[SYD]

Are you folks are only applying for cards from English speaking nations unless you know the local language, like Mandarin or French? Do you use your Australian address or a foreign address when applying for the card?

I wonder what other perky cards we're missing out on because we don't speak their language...

Report back on your endeavours!

But make sure you read the Ts&Cs carefully…

 

[levelnine]

Are you folks are only applying for cards from English speaking nations unless you know the local language, like Mandarin or French? Do you use your Australian address or a foreign address when applying for the card?

I wonder what other perky cards we're missing out on because we don't speak their language...

The only foreign credit card market worth considering seriously is the US one. There's some small value to be extracted from the Canadian, UK and German markets, but on the whole most foreign markets are considerably worse than Australia either because (a) the banking sector is not sufficiently developed to have a competitive credit card rewards market or (b) the interchange fees have been capped, preventing banks from offering generous rewards.

 

[SYD]

Here’s the article from earlier this year.

Article: By Global Standards, Australia Has Amazing Credit Card Offers

By Global Standards, Australia Has Amazing Credit Card Offers is an article written by the AFF editorial team: https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/credit-cards/australia-amazing-credit-card-offers/ You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[QF_Flyer]

The only foreign credit card market worth considering seriously is the US one. There's some small value to be extracted from the Canadian, UK and German markets, but on the whole most foreign markets are considerably worse than Australia either because (a) the banking sector is not sufficiently developed to have a competitive credit card rewards market or (b) the interchange fees have been capped, preventing banks from offering generous rewards.

Agree in general. No idea about the DE market, but there and the UK are both 0.3% interchange capped (along with the entire EU) and averse to annual fees, limiting opportunities for banks to make it work. The UK used to have quite a decent variety until the cap on swipe fees (albeit overwhelmingly dominated by MBNA).

The hotel cards (Hilton, IHG & Marriott) which aren’t Amex are all closed to new applicants (the Hilton Barclaycard lives on for those who still hold it, but it’s been closed to new apps for about five years). Amex has a Marriott card, which is the old SPG card. Amex’s MR cards have had some decent offers recently, better than seen before, but only those with higher annual fees (BA Premium Plus and Amex Plat Charge).

Barclaycard have an Avios Mastercard which had an excellent signup offer about 18 months ago (when combined with Premier banking) totalling around 150k Avios. HSBC also have decent cards only available to HSBC Premier customers.

Virgin Atlantic offer their own cards too, they’re the only ex-MBNA affinity branded cards to be relaunched, now by Virgin Money.

Canada would be more appealing if their cards didn’t have forex fees attached, but I must admit I like some of their Aeroplan cards regardless.

An interesting market is Singapore, which has a wide range of cards available, but seems to be more focused on higher earn rates than signup bonuses; SUBs are usually quite low (and sometimes capped to a certain number of applicants), but there seems to be plenty of scope to earn 4+miles per $ there.