Strategy to obtain US Amex

[prozac]

If this is a first card and no credit history, highly unlikely her card would be approved. However if she has an active credit file then it should be ok. does she have a FICO score? If not, i would recommend to try Amex or go for secure cards. Amex "may" need some CC history. As we did a Global Transfer, amex had our Credit history.
Best of luck

As stated in my OP her 1st CC. She has been in US for more than 12 months. So how do you apply for a CC with no CC history?

 

[maverick1]

Aspire Resort Credit DP for Hilton Surfers Paradise if you aren't making a resort booking in the 1st half of the year:

May 8: Purchased a Ms Margots dining gift card on this website: Gift Vouchers
Coded as the actual Hilton hotel initially.
May 11: Received the Hilton Resort Credit cashback.

Currently trying out the accommodation gift cards, will get back to this later in the week.

Great DP. I can't find a use of it this half. I'm planning a trip next year to Mexico but can't find std Hilton award yet for the property I'm after. Looking at some DP's they only release Std awards couple of months forward.
Will be great to hear if your Surfers GC results in a credit...the min spend is $250 and I've no plans to visit soon so not going to take a chance and let the credit slide...

 

[levelnine]

As stated in my OP her 1st CC. She has been in US for more than 12 months. So how do you apply for a CC with no CC history?

If the person has literally no credit history, they'll likely need to get a secured credit card first. Have a look at Discover's offerings. Unless they have an Australian Amex and can apply for a US Amex through GT.

 

[Phoenix-1]

Your legal business name is your actual name (you're a sole prop — ie trading as an individual). Any ID is your SSN.

Can you use ITIN in place of SSN?

 

[levelnine]

Can you use ITIN in place of SSN?

Depends on the issuer. Looks like the Citi AA Biz application takes ITIN or SSN at the personal details stage. Don't need to put in any ID number for the business details stage if you select sole prop.

 

[nthd_nthd]

Good morning. Not sure if the right place to ask. But I opened HSBC Premier AU bank account then Premier US checking account solely for CC purposes. I had ITIN but did not have TAX with US, HSBC AU been chasing me to provide IRS W9 Form regarding Tax information in US to have on their file. Anyone here has any experience and what did you do? Should I provide my ITIN number on W9 form to HSBC? Is there any tax complication moving forward?

TIA for any input please.

 

[yulia1985]

Good morning. Not sure if the right place to ask. But I opened HSBC Premier AU bank account then Premier US checking account solely for CC purposes. I had ITIN but did not have TAX with US, HSBC AU been chasing me to provide IRS W9 Form regarding Tax information in US to have on their file. Anyone here has any experience and what did you do? Should I provide my ITIN number on W9 form to HSBC? Is there any tax complication moving forward?

TIA for any input please.

Did you update your tax residency to US? If so, it may have triggered this.

 

[nthd_nthd]

Did you update your tax residency to US? If so, it may have triggered this.

upon checking my AU account, it's has Australia on my Details.

 

[scibo10]

Opening in branch was easy.

Just need a passport; take a credit or debit card as a secondary ID or your driver's license I didn’t need proof of address she just took it from me. Chase wanted an address confirmation from a bill or a bank statement, a offer letter or similar from another bank doesn't work.

Sora, are you able to let us know which BofA branch you went to?

 

[Sora]

Sora, are you able to let us know which BofA branch you went to?

I went to the one on Crenshaw Blvd.

Address: 2907 Crenshaw Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90016, United States

Sorry that I have not been active lately. I am severely depressed. The cost of living has hit me with some debt, causing me a lot of emotional feelings, and it just brought me down quite a bit. I have been living off noodles as I don't have the money to buy a proper meal.

Don't worry about me I will bounce back eventually.

 

[nthd_nthd]

DP: I have been constantly rejected by Amex for the past 5 months, having AU Business Explorer. P2 has the same. Today decided to do GT for P2. Got instant approval.

I may have to lay low with US Amex for awhile.

Question: IS it right that for 1st GT we should not click or go thru on Referral link? Thanks

 

[cathalm8]

If this is a first card and no credit history, highly unlikely her card would be approved. However if she has an active credit file then it should be ok. does she have a FICO score? If not, i would recommend to try Amex or go for secure cards. Amex "may" need some CC history. As we did a Global Transfer, amex had our Credit history.
Best of luck

Is it possible to get AMEX biz cards without having a Fico score?

I do have a SSN and and 5 months of credit history.

 

[mattr00]

In my experience, no. You will get rejected and the rep will say they can see you have a history with (US) Amex, but they weren’t able to get a credit score from one of the bureau and that will be it.

 

[cathalm8]

In my experience, no. You will get rejected and the rep will say they can see you have a history with (US) Amex, but they weren’t able to get a credit score from one of the bureau and that will be it.

Thanks. I may wait another few months then for my FICO. How do you know when your FICO becomes available?

 

[sudoer]

How do you know when your FICO becomes available?

Login to the Amex website or Amex US app, search for FICO, select "View your FICO score summary"

It also shows in AwardWallet if you have your US Amex account synced

 

[DC3]

How do you know when your FICO becomes available?

And when you forget how to find this, just type FICO into the AFF search bar and check the last few posts that pop up.

 

[cathalm8]

Login to the Amex website or Amex US app, search for FICO, select "View your FICO score summary"

It also shows in AwardWallet if you have your US Amex account synced

Thanks, yeah I know how to search for it. I assume I just need to keep checking on a monthly basis until it finally appears then as currently it just says "Sorry, your FICO® Score is unavailable at the moment."

Ill sync my Award wallet account with my AMEX, thanks for that tip.

 

[sudoer]

Ill sync my Award wallet account with my AMEX, thanks for that tip.

If you do this and have AwardWallet push notifications turned on, it'll let you know when the score appears (or changes after that)

 

[yulia1985]

Unfortunately calling them didn’t work, ended up having to wait for the internal credit team to approve it which took exactly 5 business days.

Here’s another DP of my latest Amex GT experience as a newbie without an SSN/ITIN (for context, I am actually moving to the U.S. in the coming months and wanted to start building my credit history ASAP).

1. Reactivated my old HSBC Australia account (took weeks after mailing in the account reactivation form and multiple phone calls chasing up).
2. Instantly converted my account to Premier status by walking into a branch and showing my payslips demonstrating that I can meet the monthly $9k deposit.
3. Applied for the U.S. premier bank account online on the same day. Was approved after one week of back and forth emails with the U.S. account opening team (had to show them my U.S. employment contract). Made my first deposit via Wise which settled overnight.
4. Updated my address to a family member’s house in the U.S. Waited one month for a bank statement to be generated that can be used as proof of us address. Also got approved for the HSBC US premier credit card as a foreigner at the same time which was a plus.
5. Got a US phone number via Talkatone.
6. Applied for an Amex card online via GT with my passport details and they asked for proof of US address. Unfortunately HSBC doesn’t do 3 way address verification calls anymore so had to upload my bank statement online.
7. Finally approved after a week of submitting my documents.

Following up on this newbie DP:
8. Called Amex up to have a replacement card shipped to Australia 10 days after approval. I didn’t have any US-issued ID so had to verify my passport over NotaryCam (waited a few more days to get an appointment).
9. Called Amex again 2 business days after NotaryCam verification and they finally approved to mail the card overseas. Gave them my Australian address over the phone.
10. Received the physical card via DHL 3 days after the call.

This whole GT process easily took ~2 months for me from beginning (reactivating my old HSBC AU account) to end (finally receiving the U.S. Amex card). Next steps: Get an SSN once I move over to the U.S. and wait 6 months to generate a FICO score…

 

[shaggyaus]

Hi everyone, question around your proof of address for your first GT if asked. Has anyone tried to use a Wise Statement in combination with an ITIN letter which has your US address on it? Not using the ITIN for the GT obviously, but wondering if that letter in conjunction with a Wise statement would actually suffice? Would save me a bit of hassle having to go down the HSBC route! Thanks all.