Strategy to obtain US Amex

[pyramidforce]

I called HSBC US, did some stuff with the premier team and I was told that my application was approved but they didnt send any confirmation email. But the reason I had to call the first place was because there were some documents that I needed to submit, but nobody told me or gave me an email to send the docs to.

No tracking number, no anything, just a vague over the phone message that the card would arrive in 7 days at AU address.

Is it normal for US banks to just not know how emails work or is my email address just broken?

 

[Ecco]

Has anyone who just recently got a US amex card been able to access their FICO score on the amex USA site? I tried to enrol and got an error message 16. Do you have to do this with a VPN set to USA? I have no SSN. I did get a letter when they sent out the card saying my Experian score was 713. That must be based on my AU card credit history?

 

[mike0430]

I tried to transfer USD from overseas into my US amex checking, regardless 3 x reps told me amex does not accept international transfer, it actually works.

 

[dein_gesicht]

Ok brains trust.

Me and P2 have been hit with Amex asking for 4506c. I read somewhere that someone filled a FTC and included all their foreign income with AU address. Amex didn't care and only cared about the income.

Any insight in what I need to do would be great

 

[dein_gesicht]

I tried to transfer USD from overseas into my US amex checking, regardless 3 x reps told me amex does not accept international transfer, it actually works.

Yes they do.

Where are you transferring from? Wise?

 

[mike0430]

Yes they do.

Where are you transferring from? Wise?

all good now, I managed to transfer from HSBC to amex checking yesterday thanks.

 

[Ko0l]

Just received the ITIN notice from Planet Express.
Will it be beneficial to have them mail the physical letter to Australia, I don't see why I will need the it but just want to see if there's anything I may have missed and will be useful to have in the future.

 

[Phoenix-1]

Also, the agents haven’t been able to send verification messages to my Talkatone number at all, errors on their end

Same issue on Tello. Apparently secure texts cannot be sent to pre-paid plans.

It depends on the bank as to whether a certain ACH source counts for bonus - DoC has a list with data points for pretty much every bank you could want: List Of Methods Banks Count As Direct Deposits - Doctor Of Credit

Thanks. I've had a look at this but I couldn't find any mention of Wise/Revolut.

I tried with Chase last night and the application quickly fizzles out with the error that there's "missing information on my profile" and to visit a branch to apply. I assume this is a missing SSN issue. I might try and see if they accept ITIN over the phone but I doubt it.

Just received the ITIN notice from Planet Express.
Will it be beneficial to have them mail the physical letter to Australia, I don't see why I will need the it but just want to see if there's anything I may have missed and will be useful to have in the future.

Do Planet Express give you a scanned copy? That's all you'll need, really.

 

[desafinado74]

Same issue on Tello. Apparently secure texts cannot be sent to pre-paid plans.



Thanks. I've had a look at this but I couldn't find any mention of Wise/Revolut.

I tried with Chase last night and the application quickly fizzles out with the error that there's "missing information on my profile" and to visit a branch to apply. I assume this is a missing SSN issue. I might try and see if they accept ITIN over the phone but I doubt it.



Do Planet Express give you a scanned copy? That's all you'll need, really.

Out of curiosity, does Chase require you to get an OTP whenever you sign into your account or use your credit card ? I also assume that you don't use a VPN when signing into your Chase account ?
Thank you in advance.

 

[Uncharted6264]

I would doubt they would accept it, but who knows.

I did 3x GT too

They did accept it, I applied and went through the whole process - but upon talking to a few agents, since I'd already used my GT, they couldn't proceed and need to wait for US credit history.

Unless you immediately did 3 GT's at once and they didn't pick it up or something, I would say they went purely off your built US/AMEX credit history for both subsequent cards. You likely didn't apply for the next card for at least 2 months after the first GT, right? I'd say you may have clicked through on the GT site but they would have ignored your foreign credit history after the first one.

 

[Phoenix-1]

Out of curiosity, does Chase require you to get an OTP whenever you sign into your account or use your credit card ? I also assume that you don't use a VPN when signing into your Chase account ?

You don't need a log in every time. Only when setting up on a new device do you need an OTP. It seems like only secure texts used for verification during calls don't work, had no issues otherwise. I don't use a VPN when signing in.

 

[DC3]

… I applied and went through the whole process - but upon talking to a few agents, since I'd already used my GT, they couldn't proceed and need to wait for US credit history.

Did Amex ask you to speak to their agents? I’ve done 4 x GT and never spoken to any agents, as it was all online. Just wondering whether something has changed before I apply for a 5th card x GT.

 

[pyramidforce]

Minor update: calling the automated line has the “in order to retrieve your status you’ll be connected to a specialist” message which seems to be a new(?) dp.

Still with the back office team for final approval and doesn’t seem to be a way to speed this up.

Also, the agents haven’t been able to send verification messages to my Talkatone number at all, errors on their end

I'm able to get messages from HSBC on Tello. Maybe that means HSBC do not use secured texts? Might need to change providers in that case

 

[Grrr]

You don't need a log in every time. Only when setting up on a new device do you need an OTP. It seems like only secure texts used for verification during calls don't work, had no issues otherwise. I don't use a VPN when signing in.

I just set up my first US Amex account via GT and didn't receive any OTP text on a GV account

I used the robo call option to receive the OTP instead

 

[Uncharted6264]

Did Amex ask you to speak to their agents? I’ve done 4 x GT and never spoken to any agents, as it was all online. Just wondering whether something has changed before I apply for a 5th card x GT.

When you say GT do you just mean going to the US-GT landing page and clicking "Log in as existing user" whilst applying? If this is the case - it won't hurt you - but to my knowledge your global history won't be helping you in your credit assessment. The will see you have US cards and look at your US history only during the application process per the landing page section I highlighted above. So you can apply as per-normal whilst logging in, effectively the same.

This was an important one to me because I messed up the order in which I applied for cards, I was under the impression you could do multiple GT's, but after the first one (I applied within the same week) they said only 1 GT available, and need to wait for US credit to get any more. Which I'm almost 100% certain is what has happened here when others have said they have done multiple GT's - the reality is they applied via the GT page, but they had already paid off the first GT card multiple times by that point, hence having credit history, and so they were quietly only assessed that way.

WRT why I talked to an agent - was because they needed to tell me about the 1-off GT situation on the second application as I hadn't had a few months of paying off first card under my belt yet.

 

[blacksultan]

Just received an offer of 25,000 MR to sign up "employees" on my US Business Plat card. Do these employees need to pass muster with AMEX for ID, residency, etc? Just transferring my AU MR over so don't want to put them at risk.

FYI form my experiment it’s not possible to have Amex redirect employee cards outside the US .

 

[DC3]

When you say GT do you just mean going to the US-GT landing page and clicking "Log in as existing user" whilst applying? .

Yes, that’s it. I successfully applied for the cards via GT, based on my relationship with Amex AU. All done online and no agents were involved. That was my experience at the time. I have no idea what went on behind the scenes but approvals were instant anyway.

 

[dein_gesicht]

They did accept it, I applied and went through the whole process - but upon talking to a few agents, since I'd already used my GT, they couldn't proceed and need to wait for US credit history.

Unless you immediately did 3 GT's at once and they didn't pick it up or something, I would say they went purely off your built US/AMEX credit history for both subsequent cards. You likely didn't apply for the next card for at least 2 months after the first GT, right? I'd say you may have clicked through on the GT site but they would have ignored your foreign credit history after the first one.

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It says only once but there are a number of people who have done this multiple times. I got my 2nd one after a month of the 1st

 

[Finale]

P2 (6 years of history and almost 800 FICO) got ITIN a few months ago and I thought things would be easier but they werent.

Signed up for Amex checking account thinking it would be easy as mine was approved instantly. Amex wouldn't take passport, only driver license or state ID. Cancelled the app and tried to add P2 to my current checking account. Amex still wanted the same type of ID.

Signed up for Cap1 venture and was approved. Later Cap1 put the restriction on the account and wanted to verify the address. They would take only bank statement or utility bills lol.

Had to cancel Cap1 card and let Amex checking app expire.

Maybe I got this all wrong and should've got P2 to get an Amex card first with ITIN. Only heard one person saying ITIN appeared on EQ after getting an Amex card though. Might also try Sofi method posted by desafinado74.

Anyone signed up for Amex checking account recently and got approved instantly? Not sure if thigns have changed or they would approved instantly if they see ITIN in a credit file.

 

[pyramidforce]

Update on HSBC Premier, credit card is showing up in my US HSBC account, physical card still in the mail somewhere. Hopefully it will get here unharmed.

Next step is to get ITIN and build credit score. A few questions for the brains trust:

1. so that the ITIN is correctly applied to my credit report, should I update my mailing and/or living address in HSBC US so that it matches my address on my ITIN application?

2. How does the ITIN get attached to my credit report? What if I am one of four John Smiths born on 4/20/69? Is address, phone number, etc used?