star_world

This is exactly what I did (and my experience was identical to that of the OPs) and yes, I had to pay the annual fee for both cards. No issue with canceling the UK card afterwards though, which I eventually did after about a year.

danielmadrid07

I told a colleague of mine who is a US citizen that I would ask the question on this board. Here is his case:

He is a US citizen who has been living and working off and on on assignment with me in Europe for close to 7 years, and has had an International Euro Platinum card and Gold card for even longer, and has maintained an excellent history with AMEX UK.
Due to a divorce and other circumstances, his US credit portfolio is pretty much in the toilet according to what he said, and under normal circumstances (filling out a new application) , he says he would definitely NOT be able to qualify for any US AMEX card.
However, he would like to know if by calling the global transfer line, and mentioning he already has UK issued cards, since they do not ask for a social security number because most people using this service are foreigners (I think all they asked me when I used global transfer a few years back was for my Spanish passport number, but did NOT ask me to fax a photocopy in) if he would be able to get a card with the global transfer service.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

sadhakim

no clue if he'd get a global transfer.. but I doubt amex would not keep a record of this... I know to get an international transfer you have to have an address in the US to get a US credit card as well as a bank account in the US. I just got an international transfer a few months ago and they didnt ask me for any information at all aside from my CDN account number.

jgsx

Global transfer would ask for a copy of his passport. Since it would be a USA passport, that would be the end of the game.

4GSM

Have him get the International Dollar Card (IDC) just like the IEC from the UK. The IDC can be paid from a regular US bank account just like any other US-issued card. No need to go through Global Transfers just to get a USD-denominated Amex card.

trueblu

I'm pretty sure that Amex didn't ask for my passport -- but they did want my US bank details, and I did give them my SS number (which I had by the time I asked for the transfer), so that may be why.

It seems to me that Amex take customer/ personal history as seriously/ more so than just credit score...and the advantage of transferring with an amex product (esp credit card) is that you get a history on your file as long as your relationship with amex...which led to the odd situation with me that I have an apparent 9 year credit file in the US, even though I've only been here/ had a SS# for 18 months!

I would not recommend trying to deceive amex: your friend could get an IDC as suggested above (but note that it doesn't always work for online purchases) and then talk to rep about a global transfer...if they suss out he's not eligible, I doubt they would cancel the idc (but you never know with amex these days!). They may even approve him for a decent charge card based on his history with them alone.

tb

dgwright99

They did not ask me for a copy of my passport when I immigrated in 2000 and moved my UK Amex account to the USA.

On the basis of my experince (9 years ago), unless things have changed I would expect that he should be able to do this. I just called up, and gave them my account details and asked to move the account over. I did have a SSN and US bank account when I called (indeed, I had those before I even arrived - I was able to arrange those as soon as I had my H1 visa), but I don't remember if they asked for it. My recollection is that it took several transfers for my call to be directed to the right place (I just called US CS), but after my call was finally transferred to the right place I remember it all being very quick and easy - a few minutes at most.

zaf

This might not be the hottest topic in this forum. I thought since I personally had some questions on the process others will too.

So here is my experience with global card transfer.

Country: Canada.
Card used for the transfer: International Dollar Card (Green).
Transfer to: AeroplanPlus Gold Card.
Application type: Phone.

This is the exact process with the timeline.

July 13: Phone application
I had the following:
IDC card
Canadian Address
Income more than 35,000 CAD (I don't know if this was important or not)
I had a credit card from a canadian bank (I don't know if this is important or not as well because I started the conversation saying that I have moved to canada and have already got a credit card and would like to transfer my card).
I was given a reference number and was asked to follow up in 4-5 days.

July 18: Follow up
I was asked to provide the following:
1- A cheque of 1 CAD that has the same address to the one I used in the application
2- To sign a consent for them to access some personal account information at the canadian bank.
I didn't have a fax machine so they mailed the consent form.

July 22: A call from Amex
Apparently, they followed up on the process but since I did not get the consent they decided to send another one.

July 29: Consent and Cheque
I faxed the consent form bank and mailed the consent form with the 1 CAD cheque.

August 19: Card Arrives
The virtual limit is not as high as the original IDC but its double what my bank offered me with their credit card. The difference is that they recognized my history with them and they said that in the first few months if I needed extra credit a call before the purchase will simply get me through (as any other charge card, ofcourse within limits).

So the process was almost 5 weeks. It could have been a couple of weeks shorter if I had a fax.

If anyone has another experience please post it here..

Hope this helps someone

cmhsieh54

Hey all,

I currently have an SPG Amex personal credit card and I'm interested in applying for the SPG Amex biz credit card. 700+ FICO, very low utilization, current overall credit exposure slightly higher than my annual income, $35k overall credit exposure with Amex. Here are my two questions:

(1) I read somewhere else on FT (sorry, I have searched just now and can't find it for the life of me) that some people are getting FR'ed or getting their CL's reduced especially if they have biz Amex's (am I missing something?). If I apply for a SPG Amex business card, am I putting myself in danger of getting a CL reduction on my personal card?

(2) I'm moving abroad soon, and expect to do a Global Transfer with my SPG Amex personal card. Has anybody had experience Globally Transferring an SPG Amex business credit card?

mia

Based only on anecdotal reports it may be that businesses using cards to finance inventory are more likely to attract a Financial Review. Having a business card and using it for routine travel, entertainment, supplies, etc should not be a problem.

I'm not sure what you mean by "with my SPG Amex personal card". The Global Transfer process is to issue a card in a country where you have no credit history based on your USA credit file and experience with American Express. They aren't going to look only at one card, nor will they force you to give up your USA issued cards.

Saracenn

I have a UK Platinum Chargecard. Having moved to Singapore, I'd like to transfer it, but it seems the Plat Chargecard is a little more elite here and has a higher income requirement (S$200k), which I'm shy of by a fair bit. Anyone got experience on getting this waived? Also, it seems from the forms that they would want to cancel my UK card, which I don't want to do. But I've read that others have kept their original cards. Any advice would be great.

optcsa

I live in Argentina, and one of the partners from my company is moving to the USA... He called AMEX got approved in about 40 minutes, and was able to apply for a Blue Credit Card, with an OK credit-limit. It was a 40 minute phone call, but was approved on the spot for the credit card, and was allowed to keep his argentine based cards.

stimpy

Why transfer? Why not just get a new Amex in whatever country you want? I had no problems getting Amex's in the Netherlands and France. And if you get affinity Amex's, like Air France/KLM, you get great benefits including EQM's with the French version.

mia

I think Global Transfers refers to transferring your history with American Express from one market to another. It does not mean surrendering your current card in exchange for another.

stimpy

Yeah, I get that. But I don't see the value. At least in my case I'm quite happy with the cards I opened raw with no history.