Strategy to obtain US Amex

[Viridis]

As much as we like to complain about cards in Australia, we have it pretty well. I was just approved today for HSBC premier and looking at US amex cards. I am basing these calcs on the AU plat charge card.

If I have 100k Amex points, it can be moved to 50k Krisflyer in Australia. However, if you had a US card and could transfer MR points at the current FX rate, you could have ~69.7k Krisflyer. There is some arb on the Marriot, but given the rate is 3:2 and not 2:1, it doesn't really add up

	Marriot	Krisflyer
AU Amex points	100,000​	100,000​
AU convert	0.67​	0.50​
Hotel/airline points	66,667​	50,000​
AU/US convert rate (FX)	0.6971​	0.6971​
US Amex points	69,710​	69,710​
US convert	1.00​	1.00​
Hotel/airline points	69,710​	69,710​
Difference	3,043​	19,710​
Difference	4.6%​	39.4%​

Then I worked out, if I have both the US and AU amex card, then the bonus (on the US card would need to be >2x to justify using the US card over the AU card

	AUD card	USD card
Spent in AUD	100,000​	69,710​
Points per $ spend	2.25​	1.00​
Total Amex points	225,000​	69,710​
Marriot points	150,000​
Marriot points (US convert)	156,848​	69,710​
Krisflyer points	112,500​
Krisflyer points (US convert)	156,848​	69,710​

I’m not sure it’s that straight foreward but I’ve had a couple of glasses of red wine so I may have missed something

i have the Au Plat. Charge and the US Gold Card. Without going into the maths it’s better for me to use the US card (no forex transaction fees!!) in Australia at restaurants (4x points) and for buying airfares (3x points) than the Aust Platinum card

Use whatever is best for the purpose.

But I guess the point is, if I lived in the US I wouldn’t be going to all this trouble to get an Australian credit card

 

[Franko Costa]

Good calculations, but the real advantage the Americans have over us is their ability to access many, many, many more sign-up bonuses.

Ignoring Chase for one moment (which, in my mind, is superior to Amex for its bonuses), you can attain multiple Amex MR sign-up bonuses in the US at a rate of about one every 30-90 days: Plat, Gold, Green, Biz Plat, Biz Gold, BBP, etc etc. Then you can get multiple sign-up bonuses of the same card due to the presence of NLL (no lifetime language) offers. Then you can get Amex MR from simply opening a savings account. And so on.

By contrast, in Australia you can get a single MR sign-up bonus once every ~19-20 months.

It's relatively easy for a smart US churner to hit 500K MR a year (I recently did half of that with just one card and one savings account). Many do well over 1M per annum. Try doing that in Australia without sizeable business spend.

So you can apply for multiple bonus offers with Amex? I thought it was the same globally with 12 months waiting period?

 

[_TheTraveller_]

So you can apply for multiple bonus offers with Amex? I thought it was the same globally with 12 months waiting period?

Indeed you can. You can also get bonuses downgrading then upgrading within the same suite of cards.

I would also say that the benefits for the cost of US cards makes it much more worthwhile.

 

[Franko Costa]

I’m not sure it’s that straight foreward but I’ve had a couple of glasses of red wine so I may have missed something

i have the Au Plat. Charge and the US Gold Card. Without going into the maths it’s better for me to use the US card (no forex transaction fees!!) in Australia at restaurants (4x points) and for buying airfares (3x points) than the Aust Platinum card

Use whatever is best for the purpose.

But I guess the point is, if I lived in the US I wouldn’t be going to all this trouble to get an Australian credit card

Use getting 3x or 4x makes 100% sense.

I just don't know what the MR exchange rate is (I only read on points hack that it is once every 12 months, roughly the current FX rate, and takes 2 weeks to go through)

 

[Franko Costa]

Indeed you can. You can also get bonuses downgrading then upgrading within the same suite of cards.

I would also say that the benefits for the cost of US cards makes it much more worthwhile.

Wow I had no idea! Shows that I have still have much to learn

 

[lunne]

Nornally happened to those who opened/closed many cards in a short time and/or having a card that was hardly used after getting SUB. Did you use your first card much? If not, start spending on the card and the popup will be gone fast. If you use the card frequently, I'm not sure what could trigger it. It also happened randomly to some people. Maybe leave it a bit and try later in a couple of weeks.

Very helpful, thank you.

The card hasn't been used since receiving the bonus points, so I would think that's the reason.

 

[lunne]

I had a similar experience when i used P2 referral link (same pop up) as P2 is a GT transfer Amex customer. Once I signed up without the referral it worked like a charm. Now I just use my US relos referral for my application as I cannot use P2 referral.

Thanks, will see if I dare try applying via GT directly and overcome the pop-up obstacle that way, or if put some spend on my Hilton card for a later sign up of the Amex gold via a referral link.

 

[bellroy26]

Hey all, just some questions after reading through some pages. For context, I currently have the Velocity Platinum Amex and I'm planning on applying for my first US Amex (Hilton Aspire) in the upcoming months.

What would be the prerequisites to have? Any tip on what to use for US address and US mobile? Thanks!

 

[thedamon]

Does anyone have any recent experiences of opening a bank account physically in the US? All banks I reach out to say they would need proof of address in the form of a utility bill, which I do not have... I'll be in LA in Feb and was hoping to be able to open the account then. I tried doing the Amex Global Transfer a while back and they wanted proof of address. I just called and said I changed my mind on that; but a little concerned to do a new GT application and them asking for it again, don't want to ruin my chances of getting this to work.. So now aiming to get the US bank acct in order.

 

[ETW]

Hey all, just some questions after reading through some pages. For context, I currently have the Velocity Platinum Amex and I'm planning on applying for my first US Amex (Hilton Aspire) in the upcoming months.

What would be the prerequisites to have? Any tip on what to use for US address and US mobile? Thanks!

Get a MyUS account. I was not asked for proof of my address they just got me to call them and verbally confirm the MyUS address I had provided. You might be equally lucky.

For the set-up process I got a T-Mobile eSim and paid $10USD for the first month just so they could call me if need be, after that I transitioned to Talkatone. I would suggest trying to set up a Google Voice account or even TextNow while you have the T-Mobile number.

When shipping the card from MyUS is about $30AUD with AusPost and they're slow as hell so be mindful that you might only end up with 2 months to hit the bonus spend by the time the card arrives and is activated. Or pay more for a faster ship. Or call Amex after 10 days and say you're overseas and ask them to ship a card to your Aust address. Also they will ship without the Suite # so will take an extra few days for MyUS to locate the card when they get it.

Set up an account with Wise to pay off the card, that bit was easier than I thought

 

[desafinado74]

Does anyone have any recent experiences of opening a bank account physically in the US? All banks I reach out to say they would need proof of address in the form of a utility bill, which I do not have... I'll be in LA in Feb and was hoping to be able to open the account then. I tried doing the Amex Global Transfer a while back and they wanted proof of address. I just called and said I changed my mind on that; but a little concerned to do a new GT application and them asking for it again, don't want to ruin my chances of getting this to work.. So now aiming to get the US bank acct in order.

I would like to know about this too. I am also planning to visit LA, and opening accounts with Citi, Capitol One and Chase. According to other comments, Citi seems to be the easiest when it comes to foreigners opening an account.

I just read the Chase criteria for opening an account, and it seems like they also accept bank and credit card statements as proof of address :

How to Open a Checking Account | Chase

What do you need to open a checking account? Learn the requirements and steps for how to open a checking account through our guide.

www.chase.com

 

[thedamon]

I would like to know about this too. I am also planning to visit LA, and opening accounts with Citi, Capitol One and Chase. According to other comments, Citi seems to be the easiest when it comes to foreigners opening an account.

I just read the Chase criteria for opening an account, and it seems like they also accept bank and credit card statements as proof of address :

How to Open a Checking Account | Chase

What do you need to open a checking account? Learn the requirements and steps for how to open a checking account through our guide.

www.chase.com

The problem with this is that you would still need a credit card / bank statement showing a US address.

 

[mrsquare]

The problem with this is that you would still need a credit card / bank statement showing a US address.

Credit card statement showing a U.S. address wouldn’t be a problem for most people active in this thread.

 

[Finale]

Does anyone have any recent experiences of opening a bank account physically in the US? All banks I reach out to say they would need proof of address in the form of a utility bill, which I do not have... I'll be in LA in Feb and was hoping to be able to open the account then. I tried doing the Amex Global Transfer a while back and they wanted proof of address. I just called and said I changed my mind on that; but a little concerned to do a new GT application and them asking for it again, don't want to ruin my chances of getting this to work.. So now aiming to get the US bank acct in order.

I don't have any recent experience but read some recent DPs and it's still possible but you might have to shop around a bit. Did you call specific branches? I would try to call the branches near where you will stay rather than using their main contact numbers. Different branches of the same bank could treat you differently as well. Don't forget to get the name of the banker as well if he says he can do it.

BoA was even more popular than Citi long time ago as they were willing to give a credit card to tourists (starting with a secure card). It is worth to try there as well. Chase wouldn't budge when I tried back in 2018. They wouldn't take my current Citi statement, ulitity bills only. My friend got a Chase account with his statement fine though. I didn't try more as I didn't really need the account.

Banks in LA should be easier too as they deal with a lot of nonducumented immigrants. Try some big branches especially in tourist areas or areas with large immigrant population. You will still need a valid US address as a mailing address. With Citi you can use an Australian address as a residential address or use the US one for both. In the past people used a hotel address but I'm not sure if you can do it these days since most will want a residential address and possibly not marked as commercial mail receiving agency and not a PO box.

For GT, some people were successful without getting asked to do an address verification after a few tries. It might be worth trying again as a couple of expired apps won't affect your future ones. My friend couldn't do verification then instantly approved a few months later.

 

[QF_Flyer]

But I guess the point is, if I lived in the US I wouldn’t be going to all this trouble to get an Australian credit card

Haha exactly right - when I started my foray into this I did wonder if any other countries were worth bothering with, but given the effort probably not...although years ago the arbitrage between UK-AU cards (both 1:1 transfer, but 1:2 exchange rate) made that very attractive, now not so much. My credit history from when I lived there, and ongoing maintenance of such, makes UK cards easy to obtain, but they're pretty underwhelming now (although occasionally some excellent offers come up).

I still go through the UK and AU Amex cards periodically as required, but my keepers are US Aspire and ICC Platinum; the latter allows me to keep a Plat for US$550, which doesn't affect SUBs for anything else, while still benefiting from the gold platinum plated insurance.

It was also a good way to clear out a couple of hundred thousand UK MR points I'd been holding on to in case I needed Avios or SQ miles, but Avios are now much easier to accrue and UK SQ transfer went from 1:1 to 3:2, whereas ICC is still 1:1.

 

[QF_Flyer]

Get a MyUS account. I was not asked for proof of my address they just got me to call them and verbally confirm the MyUS address I had provided. You might be equally lucky.

For the set-up process I got a T-Mobile eSim and paid $10USD for the first month just so they could call me if need be, after that I transitioned to Talkatone. I would suggest trying to set up a Google Voice account or even TextNow while you have the T-Mobile number.

When shipping the card from MyUS is about $30AUD with AusPost and they're slow as hell so be mindful that you might only end up with 2 months to hit the bonus spend by the time the card arrives and is activated. Or pay more for a faster ship. Or call Amex after 10 days and say you're overseas and ask them to ship a card to your Aust address. Also they will ship without the Suite # so will take an extra few days for MyUS to locate the card when they get it.

Set up an account with Wise to pay off the card, that bit was easier than I thought

MyUS would not budge with me - the card arrived, but they wouldn't forward it under any circumstances (which is per their T&Cs, in fairness). I'm not sure how some people get it to work? I also made the mistake of using a Skype Number, which wouldn't receive the SMS for verification, so I reached stalemate with Amex in the end and closed the account. Second time around I used the T-Mob eSIM as you've mentioned, I'm still paying $10 per month just to keep it active, just in case.

For an address I used Planet Express in the end, they're completely useless and the card never turned up (despite tracking confirming it had been signed for) but I just called Amex and got them to courier it to Australia after 10d, as others have done. It did let me add the card to PayPal instantly from app though, so I was able to start spending that way (Apple Pay needed the CVV annoyingly, but works fine now I have that).

 

[maverick1]

adding a data point on HSBC premier & Wise.
I uploaded a wise US checking account statement, it got rejected reason given - no transactions in the account. They wanted to see a utility bill which shows some kind of transaction. I instead offered to do a 3 way verification with HSBC US, which Amex rep agreed for, they called HSBC but the HSBC US rep refused to do it citing customer privacy etc. HSBC offered to call back Amex, but Amex refused to accept that as source of Verification.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

MyUS would not budge with me - the card arrived, but they wouldn't forward it under any circumstances (which is per their T&Cs, in fairness). I'm not sure how some people get it to work? I also made the mistake of using a Skype Number, which wouldn't receive the SMS for verification, so I reached stalemate with Amex in the end and closed the account. Second time around I used the T-Mob eSIM as you've mentioned, I'm still paying $10 per month just to keep it active, just in case.

For an address I used Planet Express in the end, they're completely useless and the card never turned up (despite tracking confirming it had been signed for) but I just called Amex and got them to courier it to Australia after 10d, as others have done. It did let me add the card to PayPal instantly from app though, so I was able to start spending that way (Apple Pay needed the CVV annoyingly, but works fine now I have that).

I definitely struggle with Planet Express - I had 3 cards delivered but only 1 arrived and forwarded. I also have the forwarding form notarised and on my account which allows them to forward letters but the lack of consistenty is a struggle.

 

[kpc]

adding a data point on HSBC premier & Wise.
I uploaded a wise US checking account statement, it got rejected reason given - no transactions in the account. They wanted to see a utility bill which shows some kind of transaction. I instead offered to do a 3 way verification with HSBC US, which Amex rep agreed for, they called HSBC but the HSBC US rep refused to do it citing customer privacy etc. HSBC offered to call back Amex, but Amex refused to accept that as source of Verification.

Could you not send a copy of US HSBC Premier Statement showing a US address?

 

[Viridis]

Ah that’s weird. I was able to reply confirmation when swapping to the GV number early last year. Haven’t had the need to do so recently though.

Eventually got it to work; replied “YES” when not connected to WiFi. Interestingly, I used my phone that doesn’t have my T-Mobile Sim in it

Also, tried to load some credit on my Google Voice account using two different Australian cards - one credit and one debit. Both failed. The error message didn’t render properly (on multiple browsers) so I’ve no idea what it said but can I assume that I need to use a U.S. credit card (despite a drop down menu including Australia as an option for the billing address of your card).