Best Credit Card Offer For BA Card In US?
 

Im interested in opening a BA credit card in the US, which bank is the card administered by and what are the best current offers available?

Thanks in advance

Chase Bank. 50k bonus miles after spend requirement.

Make sure you know what you are getting yourself into. We see weekly posts about people expecting to (a) get redemptions on almost any flight and (b) get redemptions for free or almost free, after they have already obtained the card and used it to acquire a number of Avios (miles.)

It's an investment. Make sure you do your homework.

rb211.

There's an annual fee for the Chase card ($95 at the moment, if memory serves) but one major perk is that you can book transatlantic round-trip flights originating in the US at a 10% discount at ba.com/chase10 when you pay with the card. The discount includes all the taxes/fees/surcharges etc so even if you only fly once or twice a year in the cheapest economy you can find the annual fee can pay for itself very quickly. You also bet 1.25 Avios per $ on all spending, 2.5 Avios per $ on BA purchases.

But yes, do bear in mind what RB211 has said above very carefully: if you're not familiar with the realities of finding redemption flights on BA then there's a couple of excellent threads that will be helpful here and here.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

The OP might also be able to find a Chase Sapphire Preferred offer for 50K Ultimate Rewards points, which can be converted to Avios or other frequent-traveler currencies. Chase typically waives the first-year annual fee on the Sapphire Preferred card.

I didn't know that. Thanks.

Im based in UK and all my flights originate from the UK

:confused:

Do you have a US address, social security number and credit history? If not you'll struggle to open a $ credit card account in the US.

Absolutely agree: even though I had an SSN and a US address it took me some time living here before anyone was prepared to countenance giving me a credit card, and even then I had to work my way up from rubbish cards with tiny credit lines and huge interest rates. You'd have real trouble getting the BA card I think.

Forgive me, do you want an account with a US bank/issuer? Or do you just want a USD billing card?

If you want a points earning USD card, you could get the Amex ICC (international charge card), it is administered by Amex (UK) and is available in USD - it would earn you Amex Membership Reward points, which you could convert to Avios.

Plenty of UK banks will be able to give you USD billing cards (i.e. billed in the USD currency), easpecially as you move further up the premium banking levels.

I have heard conflicting things about whether tix booked with the 10% discount are upgradable (AFU) or not. I suspect it will depend on fare class (and by implication cabin) just like any other purchase. But I guess it could be handled differently and impact AFUability.

rb211.

I agree. It took us 9 months to obtain a Chase BA credit card after we moved over here. All sorts of hoops to jump through for any form of credit in the US. Mobile phone companies wanted large deposits, some US banks (Wells Fargo for one) with policies of not issuing unsecured credit cards to non-US citizens ruled us out.

Amex were great with their global transfer programme but despite me putting over $100K through my US card over here none of it went towards our credit history as Amex is not a credit card! Each time an application went through it weakens the US credit rating and no one would take our UK credit rating into account.

Bit of a nightmare and no obvious logic other than utter risk avoidance by the banks. I fear for the global economic recovery...

My saving grace was HSBC, who were (eventually, after a few months and a certain amount of begging on my part) prepared to issue me with a US credit card based on my relationship with them in the UK. It didn't have great interest rates or a high credit line but the critical thing is getting your first step on the ladder I think.

Within a year I applied for the Chase BA card and was approved, although it's not the "Signature" visa which I suspect is largely a function of my income rather than my credit worthiness (let's just say that I am currently a relatively junior academic with the salary to match :() I'm not quite sure why HSBC were so keen to help out, as I thought the service I had was reserved for their rather more high-rolling "Premier" customers: my best guess is that it was because I have been a customer for 15 years and they have some naive idea that I might make it rich in the future given the number of degrees I've obtained...

speedbird66, sounds like you collect degrees like some others on FT collect FF programmes; I reckon the degrees will be a lot more useful in the long run though!

My Chase says Signature at the bottom but I've no idea what that means and didn't realise there were different types?

Of course, former Permanet resident, have all the required items, been approved for card.

Is there a credit card in Euros that I can get in the UK?

Most of my expenses are in Euros so also is my income at the moment, im having to convert all to pounds and losing an awful lot on currency conversions each month