US credit card offer

[cove]

In 4 transactions the cost has been almost zero with 2 up and 2 down and in each case not by much.
I am currently just a tad in front which has surprised me. There are no fees and they deal at Visa true rate and using Bell FX there are no wire transfer fees.

 

[thehound]

Does working in Canada and establishing a credit rating assist with getting US issued credit cards? I'm off to work in Vancouver in 2015 for a year and will be travelling around the USA for 2-3 months both before and after. Surely I can work that scenario to get onto some of these ideas. Anyone know if that's possible from a Canadian income base?

 

[cove]

Well thehound I have not gone looking for credit card offers that apply in Canada but you do need a Social Security card to get a US credit card so I would check in Canada first up. Your income will be Canadian and if Citibank operate there as part of being a world bank the Citi Executive card offer or others may be there.
You will probably be able to switch an American Express card that is directly issued to become a Canadian based card as Amex do allow this in the UK.

 

[Kangol]

This is an awesome thread - just to be clear, can you get a SSN without having a green card?

 

[cove]

I am 20 years out of date on that question seeing we got our Social Security cards in 1984. In 2012 we tried to get a copy card seeing ours were worn down and ragged and the answer was "No we don't do that " and that was the end of our two minutes at the counter. Ours are emblazoned with "Not valid for employment" but I haven't needed to show the card and often you just get asked for the last 4 digits of the number for identification purposes.
We did earn $24 in America and I put that into our Australian tax returns. Where Citi asked for our incomes I just converted our last tax return figure in Australia adjusting by the exchange rate.
Whether one person can get two separate cards for two lots of 100,000 points was looking good for one of my AFF associates.
I have not tried that as I can do good things with a his and a hers cards.

 

[scheps]

This is an awesome thread - just to be clear, can you get a SSN without having a green card?

Yea you can

 

[scheps]

I got my citi AA card via citigold. It was pretty easy actually. If you can do that, you wont have to worry about credit rating.

Building a credit rating is possible, building a really good credit rating in a very short time is the challenge.

 

[scheps]

In 4 transactions the cost has been almost zero with 2 up and 2 down and in each case not by much.
I am currently just a tad in front which has surprised me. There are no fees and they deal at Visa true rate and using Bell FX there are no wire transfer fees.

What would typically be the difference between say commsec offical x rates with bell FX for say a transfer of AUD to USD for 50k? is it about 1 c off? or closer to 0.5c. As there are several forex sites, just wondering why you chose that one

Thanks!

 

[cove]

I sent US $40k for much less than you are thinking with a free wire transfer.
Pricing is something you should negotiate as it is not fixed until you agree and Bill Giffen at Bell FX may need more from you scheps but it is nothing like a big 4 bank (or worse travelex or a travel card).
Our work uses Bill from time to time.
I look at Commsec on one screen while I am talking to do the forex deal.

 

[scheps]

oh interesting, a quick look on ozforex shows Buy USD with AUD rate of 0.9202, So thats like 0.6 off the commsec amount for a 50K buy. Is it much better than that?

 

[cove]

Yes divide your difference number by 3 to get warm. For commercial trading we might be around 7 pips when it is a bigger payment but this one was for re-loading an account so I can keep running up AA miles for my AAdvantage.

 

[scheps]

Wow that's nice rates, even just for 50K!

 

[marki]

I sent US $40k for much less than you are thinking with a free wire transfer.
Pricing is something you should negotiate as it is not fixed until you agree and Bill Giffen at Bell FX may need more from you scheps but it is nothing like a big 4 bank (or worse travelex or a travel card).
Our work uses Bill from time to time.
I look at Commsec on one screen while I am talking to do the forex deal.

Ok I am going to give bell FX a go even though there is HiFx also very good no bill Giffen

 

[cove]

Everything I booked onto these 2 cards have earned AA points and that includes stuff that Citibank in Australia have mulched on. As a result of getting great exchange rates from US Citi I am quite chuffed about how this is going.
We don't need the free days as the interest earned in America is just so close to zero it is in the do not bother category.
In Australia you can earn about 6% in Big4 hybrid securities so free days are more important down under.

 

[quokka77]

I think the Citi Select exclusions on insurance and the like from May 1st will not apply on the US card.

I missed this one Cove, are citi extending their ATO policy to other areas shortly?

 

[Beta4Me]

I missed this one Cove, are citi extending their ATO policy to other areas shortly?

Yes, they are. Insurance points go too.

 

[cove]

Never relax when you have an Australian Citibank credit card that earns/doesn't earn points. They keep updating what misses out so soon there will be no points for insurance and ATO is long gone. You need to check your points each month.
i think payroll taxes,insurance, land taxes and ATO will still earn AA points on the US card at one per dollar but of course you were facing a chance of zero points rather than 1.33 points per dollar if you did no change.
Naturally the biggest risk could be foreign exchange but so far I am still square on that.

 

[ferni]

Yes, they are. Insurance points go too.

I missed that announcement as well, where was that?

 

[cove]

Transacted at 0.9345 on the US credit card and then set the funds at 0.9392 to repay it. There is a $20 arrival fee but that is modest. So far and so good after 2 months of experimenting.

 

[hossein_au]

Transacted at 0.9345 on the US credit card and then set the funds at 0.9392 to repay it. There is a $20 arrival fee but that is modest. So far and so good after 2 months of experimenting.

Is it possible to share how you get such a great deal in FX? Is it just the volume you're trading? I appreciate you might like to have this discussion off line.

Cheers.