Pavane

My cousin is the parent of a sports celebrity in the UK and pays all his bills. To keep it simple, he usually uses a debit card. But she would really, really like to see points accumulate on his HUGE SPENDS. What card, preferably CSR, will work over there without a signature and just a PIN, or neither. (He doesn't want to be recognized.) . Or, something else. The billing comes to US address and he is a citizen.

MSPeconomist

Yikes. He needs the consumer protections that come with a credit card.

Would having the parent as an authorized user work? I'm assuming that the parent does (or at least should) have some form of power of attorney if the parent is managing the money.

For huge spends, it could make sense to diversify over several different "families" of cards, including travel affiliated ones for the associated travel providers.

mia

Chase does not issue credit cards that use PIN authentication. Newer cards have a contactless feature that eliminates the need to sign for small transactions, but for larger amounts the card will need to be inserted to read the EMV chip and the merchant is likely to request a signature.

See these threads:

USA EMV cards: Availability, Q&A (Chip & PIN or Signature) [2017>]

Do merchants in the UK really need to check the signature on the back of my card?

If the income is earned in the UK, it would be far simpler to obtain and use a UK-issued Chip & PIN credit card.

Pavane

Thanks!

Yes, I am helping them negotiate this a bit. The family ONLY has debit and SW Airlines cards. (With 500,000 plus points!) . I am a points "slut" and have been for many years. I'm teaching them. The spends are over $40,000 a month! Parent will be AU and probably POA.

They are already getting AMEX PLAT for the bills they pay for him for the FIRST CARD. We're going down the list, obviously. They want him to keep it simple and have ONE card. The question is which one won't need a signature. We should all have their problems! (Oh, and the parents are very modest and

Silver Fox

Your caps lock key keeps coming on. I'd get that LOOKED AT if I was you!

MSPeconomist

That level of spend would put him in line for a Centurion invitation (if desired) after a couple years of history with AmEx. Will this be a USA or UK Plat card? You might want to see whether you can choose.

Pavane

Thanks for asking. The money comes from both UK and USA, but parents (by his wishes) monitor all the expenses and pay all the bills and keep track of everything. I started to say how modest they are and only travel in economy and fly all over for him and he is very gracious and covers some. When they were describing some of his expenses, I said, "At least someone gets a ton of points." They admit it was all on a debit card. My head exploded. Now I want them to get all the points--he can't use them since all his travel is private or FC and paid for by others. This way they can travel more comfortably (in their 70s) and have nicer hotels etc. The bills have to come to a USA address and have one of them as AUs to pay bills and question potential fraudulent charges or odd expenses. You know, girlfriend goes shopping... So US card is best, right? Or did I miss something? He's the tupe that would love a Centurion card. I'll have to check on what they require.

mia

Account can be monitored daily and paid online from anywhere in the world. No need for paper statements or payments through the postal service.

USA issued American Express card will not support PIN authorization. UK issued card will. On the other hand, USA issued card will not add a foreign transaction fee for spending in other currencies, but a UK issued card will.

Another consideration is that his current bank will be familiar with his current spending pattern, an no other card issuer will be. Does the bank also issue rewards cards?

StartinSanDiego

My kids have a couple of Amex cards that are printed with their initials only. I don't know if Amex still does that, but I needed a way to keep track of which card went with which account, and have had those cards ever since.

Also a business card (different consumer protections) could be issued without his particular name printed on it.
I do believe there are still some miles earnings debit cards, but the ones I'm familiar with are earning 0.5 miles per dollar.

mia

I have never seen a business card without both an individual name and a company name. In fact, in the instances where there is no separate company name, the individual's name is printed twice.