US credit card offer

[cove]

Citibank US has a $450 card that could get you 100,000 AAdvantage miles and Admirals Club entry.
Has anyone succeeded in getting to YES on their World Elite MasterCard issued as Citi Executive?
You would need a Social Security number and a US credit rating.

 

[cove]

Well this has been very funny from Mrscove's point of view.
Her application sails straight through.
My application goes in 4 hours later and they are having trouble identifying me and my address.
I send them a utility bill and a day later mine is approved but with a credit limit of less than a third of Mrscove's limit.

I think it may be due to the US issued American Express Premier Rewards being in my name.
Anyway we will be looking forward to each getting 100,000 AA miles by spending $10,000 in the first 3 months of the card issuing.
There is Admirals Club membership and a rebate of $200 offered so the $450 fee per card is nominal.

 

[drsmithy]

Well this has been very funny from Mrscove's point of view.
Her application sails straight through.
My application goes in 4 hours later and they are having trouble identifying me and my address.
I send them a utility bill and a day later mine is approved but with a credit limit of less than a third of Mrscove's limit.

I think it may be due to the US issued American Express Premier Rewards being in my name.
Anyway we will be looking forward to each getting 100,000 AA miles by spending $10,000 in the first 3 months of the card issuing.
There is Admirals Club membership and a rebate of $200 offered so the $450 fee per card is nominal.

Do you actually live in the US (using US address, bills, income evidence, etc) ?

 

[cove]

Part timer in the US but we have a place here and a bank account s yes we have an address and a credit file with Experian.
We have a US Amex and a Nordstrom credit card.
Yes we have a social security number but our income is in Australia.

 

[drsmithy]

Part timer in the US but we have a place here and a bank account s yes we have an address and a credit file with Experian.
We have a US Amex and a Nordstrom credit card.
Yes we have a social security number but our income is in Australia.

Interesting.

I have a couple of US cards, an excellent credit score and an SSN from when I used to live in the US. I've been cautious about applying for any new cards, though, as I've assumed they simply wouldn't accept any non-US income.

 

[cove]

Mrscove has her new card so I think she will be saying hello to 100,000 AA miles shortly.

 

[casanovawa]

You lucky doer... I might see if my sister over there can get up...

Is the card any good for spending here, so no FX fees, or is it just open for the sign up bonus?

 

[cove]

I will do a tester in Perth to see if it is good or bad. If the exchange rate is too off the pace I will report that once I know.
My Ford Mustang driving friend who lives in Venice Beach thought it might be a hard to get card. Mrscove got her card approved in a day and mine was harder to get but that higher education course "Tenacity 100" worked out. I had to get an LADWP invoice for water or power to prove something to Citi.
Today I spoke to lovely lady at Citi and she was most helpful....way better than my Australian phone call experiences.

 

[marki]

Interesting.

I have a couple of US cards, an excellent credit score and an SSN from when I used to live in the US. I've been cautious about applying for any new cards, though, as I've assumed they simply wouldn't accept any non-US income.

I have overcome this issue partially. Still get charged conversion fees. Carrying a platinum Amex issued in Oz I asked the accounts desk to change my address to the borderlinx address in the us. I have no issues purchasing from the US iTunes Store for many years. Amazon and many other places.

But I do get hiccups when purchasing from Best Buy and online (only online) from Tiffany's stores. They somehow realise quickly that my US address is a mail parcel forwarding address after placing the order.

Hope it helps

 

[drsmithy]

I have overcome this issue partially. Still get charged conversion fees. Carrying a platinum Amex issued in Oz I asked the accounts desk to change my address to the borderlinx address in the us. I have no issues purchasing from the US iTunes Store for many years. Amazon and many other places.

Thanks, but I don't have any purchasing problems - got two US-based cards already.

I'm interested in taking advantage of signup bonuses for US credit cards, since they tend to be both a) more frequent and b) more generous than local cards. However, I'd assumed that card issuers wouldn't consider an Australian-based income as "useful" when it came to approving a US-based card. If they will, then I'm willing to give it a shot.

 

[marki]

That's harder but not impossible. I am sure you can sign up for a US Credit Card being based in Oz. Please correct me if this is not the case


Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly

 

[cove]

The question of whether my income was in the US is quite simple. If I earn a very,very modest amount from interest it goes into our Australian taxable income. The income I disclosed was my Australian taxable income multiplied by the exchange rate on the application date for each of us as individuals.
Of course my final credit card journey may take me to the UK because there seems to be some juicy offers and we are suckers for anything juicy.
Getting my partner a credit score in Australia,the US and the UK is quite deliberate because we still think we may be able to travel for a few more years but nothing in life is certain.

 

[quokka77]

My partner is a US citizen with US SSN but no US credit record (mainly grew up in Australia). Maybe it would be worth her establishing a US credit history with offers like these... How did you go about establishing this if you don't mind disclosing? Thanks.

 

[cove]

Hello quokka77 you can find our journey in an AFF blog named "Establishing A Credit Rating In America"
Using a US Bank debit card and a 28 Degrees card from GE is an alternative but since I started with the US points journey just using the Amex Premier Rewards card I can confirm that I have more than $10,000 US retail value of points in less than 2 years and I am a happy points chaser.
Of course the economy value of those points would be less than 20% of that amount but I do not want to fly long haul in coach.

 

[drsmithy]

My partner is a US citizen with US SSN but no US credit record (mainly grew up in Australia). Maybe it would be worth her establishing a US credit history with offers like these... How did you go about establishing this if you don't mind disclosing? Thanks.

I went through when we were living there. You basically need to get a credit card backed by a cash deposit, and use it - making regular and frequent payments - for about 6 months. After that you'll probably have a "decent" credit rating. At this stage you can either keep doing what you're doing for another six months and you'll have a good to excellent rating, or you can apply for another card (which will negatively affect your rating a little bit, and a lot if you are unlucky enough for it to be declined) and start using them both in the same way (which will then keep improving your rating).

What matters most in establishing and maintaining your credit rating are regular and frequent repayments, plus the obvious things like never missing a payment. Income seems to be relatively unimportant (eg: my wife, on a US$30k income, was approved for a credit card with a US $17k limit - I was on over $100k at the time and was approved for the same limit).

If you're not living in the US, or at the very least there in person to apply for that first card, I imagine your chances starting off would be near zero, unfortunately.

 

[cove]

With our two new Citibank US cards we have to spend $10,000 in 3 months on each card to get the 100,000 each AA miles.
Second day back at work there are some work flights in the US to book on AA and a good sized stationery purchase going off to Costco Business so it is all falling into place so far.

 

[tinkybelle]

I Have had a US visa debit for nearly 20 yrs but no SSN. would I be able to apply I have never tried.

 

[cove]

tinkybelle without the Social Security Number that would not have worked on getting the Citi Exec card as that was a requirement.

 

[cove]

Today I did a retail charge on this US credit card (MasterCard) and there really isn't a foreign exchange fee but the difference in exchange rates costs about 1%. So at the moment you can do about $11000 AUD to get to $10,000 US spending target for a cost of about $100. They did .8943 when the mid rate was .9030 so that is pretty good from my perspective.
I had thought of using US vendor payments but they are being charged about 2.75% fees for MasterCards and Visa payments which is three times what we pay in Australia.
The first 100,000 AA miles should be negotiated and in the bag next week on both of our accounts.
This journey into the unknown seems to be falling into place but I should know in about a week.
Looking up details on the running accounts was much easier than with Citi in Australia.

 

[flin898]

I wish i had SSN. Missed out so many offers.