American Express Global Card Transfer

[deg0ey 2]

Hi all,

I've recently been accepted for an American Express credit card in the US via the Global Card Transfer scheme. There are a lot of mentions of the scheme as a way for people to bypass a lack of credit history upon arriving in the US but I struggled to find much information at all about how it works in practice and whether it is actually a practical solution, so I wanted to share my experiences here.

I'm a British citizen who entered the US on a K1 visa on 30 March 2016. I'm reasonably fortunate that my UK credit history is pretty strong, I got my first credit card aged 18 when I started university, picked up a couple of others along the way and never missed a payment - I'm currently 26, so that's about 8 years of decent history.

After reading reports that the Global Card Transfer scheme was a good way to start building credit in the US, I applied for the BA credit card in January 2016 and was approved with a limit of £6000. For reference, my salary at the time was about £21000. I used the card as heavily as possible in the three months before my move, mostly on expenses for the upcoming wedding and the like, with the aim of giving AmEx as much information as possible about me to work with. I also paid off the entire balance in full each month.

As previously mentioned, I arrived in the US on 30 March and a day or two later my fiancee and I visited BoA to change her bank account to a joint account. The process was all very painless, they didn't require a SS# and just took my passport details as ID to sign me up on the account.

On 13 April, I went to the social security office, having waited two weeks from arrival as is usually recommended and was approved without issue. The SS# arrived in the mail on 19 April and I immediately started to look into getting a credit card.

I spoke to an AmEx representative via their online chat feature to clarify a few questions I had about the process. I explained my visa situation and that I am currently unemployed. The representative was very helpful and explained that I would have to apply for a new card online and then call in to the New Accounts department and tell them I wanted to use the Global Card Transfer scheme. She also said that for the income section of the application I was allowed to list "any income to which I would have a reasonable expectation of access", which can include my fiancee's salary deposited to a joint account.

I completed the application for the Blue credit card which seemed to be the most basic option because I didn't want to give them any additional excuses to reject me. I entered my fiancee's salary for the income (approx $70k) and selected 'Other' from the dropdown menu asking the source of this income. I then called the New Accounts number as instructed and after answering a few security questions and being transferred a couple of times to get connected to the right person I was told that I had passed the credit check based on my existing card but would need to verify my address with a utility bill or bank statement. I was fortunate that BoA had provided a statement since I was added as a joint account, so I was able to save a copy from my online banking portal and upload it to the American Express website immediately as proof of address. I then received an email telling me that I had been approved for an amount of $5000 and should expect a card to arrive in the mail in 2 to 3 business days.

The entire procedure was completely painless and I would absolutely recommend it to anybody with a sufficient credit score to get an American Express card before they move. They only require three months of existing account membership to use the Global Card Transfer, so it should still be accessible to people who are quite close to making their move, and a $5k credit limit should be much more useful than the $500 I'd have likely been able to get on a secured card if I didn't have the AmEx.