Oh yes I agree. It meets the brief on main reason to have it.

That being said having had credit cards in Hong Kong and knowing the level of annoyance they put u through to get anything financial done i guess this isn't too bad haha.

So, I called the customer service line to check the status of my newly approved card. The rep asked me about my ID or Passport number (never shared my passport number on the app). Then, when he came back saying he could not locate any info, I asked him to look it up with my social, no luck either. If they cannot even do that, what are they good for?

Did you give a driver's license number during your application?

Yes, that I did but he still couldn't find it. He asked me if there were any "hyphens" in it but there are none.

Try e-mailing as HGHUA said. They seem to be more able to find out your information. Did you save the application number? I couldn't find a way to reference it later, so I did a screen shot when I applied. Maybe they can do a search based on an e-mail address?

I'm wondering if their e-mail address for card servicing isn't stateside?

So, I got an e-mail reply that my application was received and approved. Does anyone know if the card reports to credit bureaus?

Just looked at my EX report again, no trade line. The hard pull is there, however.

Same here. What CL did you get if you don't mind me asking? I will report mine when I get the card.

Most people had been getting an $8,000 CL. The card application did a hard pull of Experian, but as of 1-2 months ago they hadn't been reporting to any of the bureaus. However, there are some reports online that they're reporting to TU now.

$8k, like everyone else I know of.

I've been testing out the card per some other posts online, and I was able to select debit at Safeway. I entered my six digit PIN, and the transaction approved and posted as a purchase:

http://i.imgur.com/mTGvctit.jpg

It is also possible to do a PIN bypass and run it as a credit transaction. Also, I had initially swiped the card, but the terminal asked me to insert. After I inserted the card, the terminal told me to swipe.

I then wanted to see if the Arby's nearby supported PBOC since I knew they were using standalone First Data terminals, but the terminal did not. The cashier was having a difficult time with the terminal because it was giving conflicting information about inserting or swiping the card. Perhaps the terminal was trying to prevent a fallback transaction? Eventually, the transaction went through, and it said it was a Discover card:


http://i.imgur.com/THyhbt7t.jpg

Finally, I decided to try it out at Costco. To my surprise, it worked there too after I entered my PIN:

http://i.imgur.com/gyBelEAt.jpg

The two transactions above that went over the debit network cleared as purchases. I'm curious which debit network it's using. Might it be Discover's debit network?

So, I received my new CUP card, it's only 5k CL but I'm not complaining. Maybe once I use it a little, they will increase. Any experience with CL increases yet?

So, today I tried to use my UPC card at Sweet Tomatoes and it was declined as invalid card. The receipt said it was card type Discover and authorization failed due to invalid card. I thought that was resolved a long time ago for card-present transactions? Same was happening to my JCB card 6 years ago, at which time I decided to only use it in Japan.

Can't answer the network question, but I've also had success at Costco with PIN—both inside and at the gas pumps.

I've also had a few PIN-based gas pump transactions (not Costco) in the US that have never posted. This mirrors my experience with a China-issued ICBC UnionPay debit card, where US pay-at-the-pump transactions still haven't posted years later...

Does UnionPay have a prohibition against preauthorized transactions or something? That would possibly explain that behavior (though why they don't just decline such attempts before the customer fuels up is beyond me).