We are on the same boat. It is fun to pick up new credit cards and manufacture the spending during my short stay in US. Even I had some mattress run.
But one day my wife asked me if there is no this kind thing, will you still fly back to US so frequently? I don't know. Considering the spending on air tickets and other fee, is it worth going back to US just for some credit cards and spending?
Originally Posted by
tomsam
This year I primarily live outside the States, but I make it back to the US at least once a quarter for a week to 10 days at a time. I do have a permanent address in the US (not a PO box), and it serves as my address for banking and credit card purposes. My income is also US sourced and direct deposited into a US bank.
Since the US is my financial base, I can apply for credit cards (though cards with zero transaction fees are more attractive). However, the fact that I spend most of my time outside the US adds the wrinkle of having to time credit card applications (and possibly manufactured spending) with my US visits.
Just returned from 12 days in the US.
About 1 month prior to my US trip, I applied for -
Citi AA visa business (50K AA miles after $3K spend in 4 months),
US Airways mastercard (40K USAirways miles after first spend, $89 fee not waived),
Chase Ink Bold (50K UR points after $5K spend in 3 months).
The Citibusiness and US Airways cards were approved automatically. I called the reconsideration line for the Chase Ink Bold a few days after application (while still outside the US), and was told that it couldn't be approved because my business was too new and that I had too many recent transactions. I do have a Chase Ink Plus and 5 Chase Personal Cards (CSP, Freedom, Marriott Rewards, Priority Club, Hyatt). A few days after the rejection via the reconsideration line, I sent a secure message to the Chase team from my Ink Plus account explaining why I was applying for the Bold. I never heard back from them by SM. I assumed they had sent me a letter with their decision to my US address, and didn't want to call to find out status. Since they did not SM me, I assumed it was another rejection letter.
On arrival in US I was glad to find that they had in fact approved the app for the Chase Ink Bold. Now on to meet the minimum spend on the 3 new cards!
During my 10 days in the US, I was able to find a CVS in a city/state that I don't normally visit that had 8 Vanilla Reloads and where I could use a credit card to purchase them. Loaded them to my Bluebird online for some of my regular monthly spend. I also managed to squeeze in the purchase, and receipt of a couple of the recent fee-free Chase Gift Cards. On my last day in the US I visited Walmart to load them on to my Bluebird.
All in all a good Visit-o-Rama!
Anyone else on here in a similar situation and has to rely on Visit-o-Rama's? Any tips / tricks?