US Credit Cards for American Expats?
 

Hiya,

I recently moved to Hong Kong for work. I've noticed that the credit card programs here are fewer and far less generous than those in the US. I have a CX AMEX that gives 1 mile per 8 HKDs(~=1 USD) with 2x earning in the first 3 months and several (7?) thousand miles as a sign-up bonus. I recently applied for a SQ Visa that has a 5k mile sign-up bonus and 10x earn up to the first 2k miles (ordinary rate 10 HKDs or $1.30 USD/mi).

Compared to 50k miles and such commonly available in the US, these deals are crap, but there's not anything dramatically better out there.

My question is whether it's possible, practical and/or economic to get American credit cards (say, using my home address and having my parents mail them to me), spending the money locally (presumably paying applicable FX fees) to meet either the minimum spend or possibly on an ongoing basis (if they're that much better and/or the FX fees are low enough).

Further, I've been getting significant pushback when trying to use my AMEX lately and it's kind of annoying. One travel agency charged me 2.5% over cash price for using it to buy a ticket (was still cheaper than the rates other agencies quoted me for the same ticket). My gym just tried to tell me that they don't take AMEX when I upgraded my contract, but they've been taking my AMEX on autopay for months. I'm under the impression that surcharges are illegal under the AMEX merchant contract, and they probably don't smile upon their cardholders being pushed around by merchants, either. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing? Is there a complaint hotline/webform/email address? Does it do any good?

Yup, I'm international much of the time and using American credit cards works fine. Get them to any address in the USA and sent to you overseas.

For the extra benefits to be worth it, you need no Forex fees - that means a Capital One card, or one with special offers. The best two recently from Chase are the BA Visa and the Intercontinetal which is either a Visa or Mastercard. BA's 100k miles is expired, but I think they have 50k signing bonus right now. Intercontinental offers a decent amount of points good for a few nights stay. The IC card actually looks better to keep long term - only $40 annual fee and a free night's stay certificate every year is a great deal. Of course, grab whatever cards offer crazy signing bonuses when you see them, and try to put your USD spending on it so you don't pay the forex fees (even if you have to, though, it's worth it for a big signing bonus).

I also have the Chase BA, Priority Club, and CapitalOne Venture cards and love the fact they have no forex fees. I used to use my SPG Amex, but always got hit with forex fees. Also if you use your BA card enough $30k worth, then you get a free companion certificate. Also I use my parent's address since I've been working overseas so they can relay my mail to me.

As indicated, get a US-based card (have it sent to a US address, either a family member, friend or mail service).

Capital One has no annual fees, so it's very attractive (we use this for all int'l transactions, in addition to our FIA card, which is supposed to be changing soon).

This current thread also discusses non-forex cards.

I don't know specifically about Amex, but Visa Asia has been forced by a number of governments in Asian markets to overlook the part of their merchant agreement forbidding extra fees for taking credit cards. On a recent trip to New Zealand, for example, when I checked in to Crowne Plaza Auckland the first time there were no fees -- but when I returned a week later they had put up a notice about the changes, and no amount of complaining to Visa International made any difference. (Of course, the hotel will argue that it is to keep costs down but my room wasn't any cheaper after they started charging credit card fees!)

The same nonsense, unfortunately, is working its way through many US states. The merchants' lobbyists argue that they are "protecting" the consumer by preserving lower costs, while the card networks argue that the merchants are instead using it as a way to pad merchant profits.

For once, I'm on the side of the credit card companies on this one. Credit cards are a convenience for both the merchant and the consumer -- fees charged to merchants may indeed lead to higher prices for the consumer, but that's only fair to both merchant and consumer for the added convenience. To single out credit card companies seems more a way to pad merchant profits, as credit card companies have claimed.

Currency fees are 2.7%. If you're SPG PLT, you get 2 Starpoints/dollar for SPG AMEX charges at Starwood properties. So USD $1,000 spent at a Starwood property results in $27 in currencty fees and 2,000 extra Starpoints, USD 1.35¢ per point.

I've been living in Japan for 8 years. I always use an American credit card. Get one without FOREX fees like the AMEX Platinum or Chase Sapphire and you're as good as gold.

I've been overseas for a little while too and have been looking for cards without foreign exchange charge (often 3%). There are a few good hotel cards out there right now, Marriott for 50,000 points and Priority club for 60,000 points that have no foreign exchange fees. On the airline side, I know the BA card I have right now has no Forex fees. Not sure about others though.

Even the cards with Forex you can churn if you have first purchase bonuses or small minimums.

US based credit cards suck because they aren't chip encoded. Example: go to a French train station and try to book just a short train commute 15 miles away. Everybody else with normal european credit cards, just goes to the ticket dispenser machine/pays with the redit card. This takes about 1 minute. But, if using the old-fashioned, US based credit card you can't use the same ticket dispenser machine---you have to go and wait in long queue with a bunch of other dumb tourist-looking people. This often can take a very long time just to reach the window. By this time, you've already missed one schedule and the whole operation ends up costing you not only possibly 20-30 minutes wating in a stupid line, you end up having to take a later scheduled train. So, go ahead and get an old-fashioned, third-world, low-tech US based credit card. The only credit cards you can get issued in the US are all low-tech, and often don't swipe/work in other countries that are more advanced. It truly sucks. I supposed if you're in a country that doesn't require the chip encoded credit cards you will be okay. Oh well, I remember the times when the USA was cutting edge, always had the new technology.

I would gladly pay a 3% FX surcharge on the minimum spending on almost ANY US credit card to get the sign on bonus.

For example, paying 3% on the $1,500 spending required to get 75,000 AAdvantage miles would cost me $45. I would pay gladly pay many multiples of $45 for 75,000 AAdvantage miles!

You should be able to apply for US issued cards and have your folks mail the cards to you. And if you still have your US bank account, you could easily pay your card bill online.

For regular spending, I would choose a card with no forex fee such as the BA card or Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

1. You have to realize the fact that most, if not all, non-US based credit card sign-up offers are not as fatty. For those of us living in Asia or Europe, even Canada, all learn to accept it. ;)

2. Keep in mind that Amex is not as widely accepted in Asia as either MC or Visa. So you should screen your card selections wisely.

3. When going over the following thread mentioned up thread, you should take note for those Amex card w/o foreign transaction fees come with high annual fees ($450 or something):

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/credi...tion-fees.html

4. If you can justify the possible annual fee and/or 2-3% piled on foreign transaction fees to use your choice of mile/point-earning cc on a daily basis, your pool for card selections would be bigger.

Last but not least, be happy that you are relocated to HK since HK-based offers are not the worst. Good luck!

All Capital One cards (as far as I know) have no forex fees, even the ones with no annual fee.

Actually, the junk fee involved is no longer a FOREX fee but a ''foreign usage fee''. It doesn't matter that it is in dollars. If it is incurred outside the US, the fee will be applied.

I use my CapOne for actual spending outside the US, and my US-based cards only when I order something from the US or when I am myself back in the states for a visit.

Bolding Mine. Where/when did you hear that the FIA cards are gonna be changing soon? The reason I ask is b/c people are always making stuff up about how the policies are gonna be changing so I was wondering if this was conjecture or if you actually had heard this from FIA?

What does being SPG plat have to do with how many pts you earn for SPG charges on an SPG AMEX? Your elite status has no bearing on how many points you earn for CC charges. The only thing status affects is earning 3 base pts per dollar (for both Gold & Plat) as opposed to 2 pts per dollar for general members.

This has nothing to do with the topic on hand though. While I completely agree with you that it is very frustrating have you considered how good we have it in the US with signup bonuses. Put another way, if you had to choose between having the newest technology chip encoded cards or getting the monster sign-up bonuses which would you choose. I think 99/100 people would choose the signup bonuses.

Of course the ideal situation is to get the monster sign-up bonuses AND have the best technology but unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world :(

Definitely do, because these cards come with zero liability for the user for fraudulent use. With chip cards, the banks have zero liability - the customer and merchant share liability 50/50 if the card is used fraudulently. The only people who benefit from the chip cards are the banks, and it's too bad parts of the world (Europeans in particular, but it's spreading) have been fooled into believing otherwise. Until that's fixed, I won't even consider getting a chip card.

Luckily, Visa and MasterCard both require merchants to accept magnetic stripe cards as part of their worldwide merchant agreement. However, few people exercise their rights by pressing when merchants refuse the cards.