raffa

Hi,
I have a M&M Gold Mastercard since almost ten years. I recently received a letter informing me that at the end of January my card will not be valid anymore as it doesn't comply to the recent "Strong Customer Authentication" technology.
Upon further questions to the issuing bank (Unicredit in Italy) the answer was something like "Sorry, you can't renew this card. The only solution is that you need to become a bank account holder at our bank and we will issue a new M&M card which will comply with the new technology."

So it seems after many years they just changed their mind and they now want everyone to be an account holder, compared to the previous way in which I had a different bank account and the M&M card was simply "linked" to that.

In addition to that, I recently moved to Belgium and I successfully applied for a M&M American Express since a few months.
I would like to have anyway also a Mastercard as it seems generally more accepted in EU – but the Belgian M&M website is only offering an AMEX linked to BrusselsAirlines.

Having a look at the M&M credit cards on the German M&M website I can see there's plenty of options.
I was wondering, would it be possible for me to:

1. apply for a German-issued M&M Gold Mastercard
2. not have the obligation to have an account at some German bank, but to have the card linked to my Belgian bank account
3. have the card without a German resident address, but instead a Belgian one

I guess I'm not the only one who had a situation like this one, but I couldn't find any useful results searching in the forum.
Anyone can kindly help?
Thanks

gojko88

I've never seen an EU bank willing to issue a credit card to a non-resident, but happy to be proven wrong if someone has a contrary example.

In any case the M&M German Mastercard is terrible value since it only offers 0,5 miles/€ on regular spend, whereas the Belgian cards give 1,25 or 1,5 miles/€. Also, AmEx is aggressively expanding in the EU so acceptance is much better than it used to be a couple years back.

raffa

True, I get more miles with the Amex, but I would still like to have a Mastercard as well.
I also have other non-airlines cards, but only prepaid and debit cards. So sometimes it's useful to have a proper credit card and I'd like it to be a M&M one if possible.

oliver2002

DKB in Germany is very restriktive too, you definitely need to open a account with them to qualify as non resident to have the M&M CC.

Andriyko

Back when the UK was a member, my husband (a U.S. citizen living in Ukraine) got a credit card from HSBC. He did have a bank account with them as well. We still have that card.

nu26

Hi,

I am in a bit worse situation, as the only bank in Poland that had a decent M&M credit cards (mBank) stopped cooperation with M&M. So, I am looking for alternatives as well, but mostly to protect my miles from expiring.
This is what I was able to find out till now:
- German DKB is not issuing cards anymore without having an account with them. I applied for an account remotely (doing all paper works over regular mail), but didn't get any feedback from them for more than month. Calling them doesn't help. They just push you to another agent who asks you to fill in papers again and again. I went ahead and tried to visit them in Munich, but looks like they have only ATMs there and very limited personnel resources (like only clerk for few hours per day). Didn't make it on time. Will try in Frankfurt if I get a chance.
- Austrian M&M card by cardcomplete.com - I had couple of calls with them, filled out forms, but got denied because of non AT resident. They do not care if you EU state member resident. Only AT residents allowed
- Swiss M&M card - I wasn;t able to complete electronic form they have. I got stuck on TAX ID. Looks like Polish TAX ID is not recognized. Had few calls with agents, they promised to check it, but no feedback.

So, looks like I am stuck with my miles for now and will have to use services like https://milesandmore.loylogic.com to extend miles validity

You guys are lucky to be residents of proper EU member countries, not like second-hand ones

raffa

I feel you, but at this point it seems banks simply don't care regardless of country.
It looks like everyone changed their mind about having non-customers get a card.
This sucks, honestly. At the end of the day, the get the money back, so why would it matter if it's from a customer account or from a third party account?

oliver2002

Over at VFT member Celine reported that s/he had an old DKB account and managed to open a M&M CC in spite of being Italian resident. The DKB route is possible but a very rough and stony path. Probably easier to open an account with Unicredit in Italy

raffa

Funny thing is – they don't want me, as I'm not an italian resident
I feel stuck.

on a side note, if I already have the Brussels Airlines AMEX, it means I won't lose my miles even if my Mastercard will be cancelled, right?

oliver2002

Yes, but make sure the terms say that: https://www.miles-and-more.com/row/e...-overview.html

(in some countries the terms on expiry vary)

st8dm

you should read the fine print, but you should be correct: as with all other CC with MM, you should be protected of expiry.

Interesting that they offer MM AMEX in BE...

st8dm

Yeah, well, I don't fully agree to that:
it's how these offers are tailored.
As a resident of Germany, I'm not eligible for any of the cards you mentioned either. And I'm envious of some of the perks some country-binded offers out there.

It sucks you don't have a MM CC in your country, but I would guess this is only transitory.
All countries in EU I've checked, MM has a local CC.

So, keep checking and don't despair: my bet is such an offer will appear in PL soon.
Keep checking the MM website.

oliver2002

There are quite extensive terms associated to the expiry which differ from country to country. Just having the card is often not enough.

Carpacchio

They did this already when I was Belgian resident back in 2004-06. Seems Amex is more accepted in Belgium ?

I think the issue is that banking regulations are still country based, not EU wide. Given the compliance measures becoming stricter and stricter, I can understand that they don't want to invest into "exotic" cases which would probably have a negative RoI for them.

hugolover

M&M cards are falling apart. Look at the UK, a massive credit card market.

Diners Club will no longer accept new applications in Poland, mBank already pulled out. M&M credit cards are on life-support there. How much longer until Diners Club pull all M&M cards?

The Polish offer was so terrible, even when applications were being accepted I was never tempted.