Just turned down again for a credit card

Being the devils advocate here again , but i should imagine a non US citizen living in the USA may have trouble getting a credit card with any big limit as well. I had a AMEX card in Taiwan but when I came to the USA 11 years ago to live (before was just visiting) I got a Capital One card with a 200 US DOLLAR LIMIT !!! My Amex limit was over 10,000 USD. DIdnt even matter when applying for credit in the USA. Records in the USA decide how much of a limit you get and how easy it is to get credit cards. NOw i got cards with limits way in excess of 10k and I can have several more cards then the 4 iv got already no problem

When I applied for an AMEX (US based) card in TAipei it was not a problem back then, but it may be now. Govt regs and all that kabosh.

Plus the banks own guidelines.

p.s strange that banks do things to benefit themselves. MY Amex was a US based card but all the expenses made on it for years did not help me when i wanted to apply for a credit card (non Amex) in the USA.

Got life insurance? I got a card under my own name on the strength of that, with no guarantor.

tommy525, In the US, once you develop a credit history, it’s no trouble getting a card, even for a foreigner. I had to help my partner get his first card there, but after that, he was able to easily secure his own. I have 6 years employment and banking history in Taiwan, and 4 years of credit history. Not a single late payment. This hassle should be a thing of the past.

sandman, thanks for the suggestion, but I don’t see how life insurance will alleviate the bank’s fear that the foreigner will bail Taiwan, leaving bad debt.

If that is, indeed, the reason for banks not giving credit cards to foreigners, why don’t foreigners accept this then and use credit cards from their home countries?
At least with the VISA debit card issue it was worth arguing with the post bank about it, because issuing such a card to a foreigner does not create any risk for them (and the matter got resolved pretty quickly), but (and this is not aimed at you, it is just as a general comment that seems timely in this context) i think that foreigners in any country who expect that a domestic bank there should take the risk of giving them unsecured credit are simply unreasonable.
(Now you got two cards, since you cleverly played the system - good for you; i may try that myself one day, just to see how far i get, but there is really nothing one can generalize from such cases as yours. :slight_smile: )

[quote=“yuli”]If that is, indeed, the reason for banks not giving credit cards to foreigners, why don’t foreigners accept this then and use credit cards from their home countries?

At least with the VISA debit card issue it was worth arguing with the post bank about it, because issuing such a card to a foreigner does not create any risk for them (and the matter got resolved pretty quickly), but (and this is not aimed at you, it is just as a general comment that seems timely in this context) I think that foreigners in any country who expect that a domestic bank there should take the risk of giving them unsecured credit are simply unreasonable.
(Now you got two cards, since you cleverly played the system - good for you; i may try that myself one day, just to see how far I get, but there is really nothing one can generalize from such cases as yours. :slight_smile: )[/quote]
Because when you use an overseas card, you incur an international transaction fee of approximately 4%. Additionally, you lose twice on exchanging currency from NT$ to US$ back to NT$, assuming you are using income earned in Taiwan to purchase goods in Taiwan. Then, you also have the expense of getting money back to the US to pay the US credit card bill. (Or wherever your home country may be.)

All credit card debt is unsecured. It is a signature loan, only as good as your credit. If a person has a good credit history, a stable job and income, that is all that should matter. On the other hand, foreigners who have preceded us and absconded with bad debt have made it difficult.

What one can generalize from my case is there is no clear, rational path for the average foreigner to get a card in Taiwan. There have been countless threads already, from which it is clear that it is hit-or-miss and depends largely on who you know or who at the bank you deal with.

Understandable - if such expenses outweigh the benefit of using a credit card then one would keep using cash. In my own case, using credit cards from home is not an issue since my income comes from there at the moment, but i recognize the issue people have whose income comes from Taiwan - but the solution to that expenses problem is the debit card: that’s why i was so keen on seeing that problem with the VISA debit card not being available to foreigners resolved. :slight_smile:

I would think the last point is important: banks and loan companies everywhere consider not only a person’s personal credit history but also the “group” they perceive that person to belong to (rightly or wrongly). And then, even if someone has 4 years of good credit history and a stable job in Taiwan today - if they suddenly leave the country tomorrow and leave behind an unpaid debt, the bank has little recourse. So i can understand their general reluctance.

Yes, that was my point, as well… :slight_smile:

Additionally, I can’t get the gas discount with a US card.

But you may still be in the running for a box of tissues.

Seriously, I know it is a headache. Even with a Taiwanese wife they gave me a hard time. I eventually got, but it was like pulling teeth. Back home they throw credit cards at you.

And look at the debt related trouble the US and the US$ are in now… that “easy credit” will come back to haunt you guys…

i know, im paying off and cuttin up my cards one by one, just keeping 2

You’re in the US, right? From the perspective of your FICO score, that might not be the best course of action. Two things that can improve your score are high ratio of available credit to amount owed, and account longevity.

If you’re in Taiwan, it might not be the best course of action, either. According to one of my clients who is the manager of direct sales for his bank’s credit cards, banks feel that people who cancel their cards only got them in the first place for the gift. After they get the gift, they cancel. Banks frown on this. Not that it matters for us foreigners, anyway…

Hey Craig, did you apply for your credit report yet? There might be something weird on there causing you problems. It’s only NT$100 and easy to apply, worth doing every year to keep an eye on things.

I haven’t yet, and maybe I should, just out of curiosity. But the reason given is always unequivocally because I am a foreigner.

You’re in the US, right? From the perspective of your FICO score, that might not be the best course of action. Two things that can improve your score are high ratio of available credit to amount owed, and account longevity.

…[/quote]

You are not incorrect ! However, having the cards around TEMP me to spend ! And thus get myself in the hole again :slight_smile: So cutting them up will cancel that temptation.

And actually your FICO can be affected adversely as well if you have a lot of unsecured debt POTENTIAL (ie high credit card limits versus income ) FAIK ?

The people you are speaking to won’t even know the reason for refusal, they will just assume that’s why. Might be a communication breakdown from the banks there.

OK, this is as about a fucked up process as I’ve dealt with at any bank in Taiwan.

So my partner calls to ask whether a guarantor would work, and they couldn’t say absolutely, but probably. I assume that would be a guarantor of payment. Well, I got a call from the bank that said with a guarantor of my status in Taiwan, they might be able to process the card. I told them I had an ARC, of which they have a copy, which confirms my legal residence in Taiwan. They said they’d need a signature from my wife…BWAHAHAHAHA…or employer. WFT is that? Either one (assuming I had a wife) could kick me to the curb, in which case I’d have to leave Taiwan. I asked if they weren’t more interested in a guarantor of payment, and they said no, they needed a guarantor of my residence in Taiwan.

I told them to forget it. I don’t need their card.

That seems to support my perspective on the whole matter of banks and foreigners in Taiwan: they are concerned about customers leaving the country and thus becoming (for all practical purposes) unreachable, and since there are no exit visas anymore that requirement they created is perhaps the next best thing they can think of. :wink:

Is it because of Taiwan’s rather unique political situation and limited scope to have fraudsters extradited, or perhaps the demographic of most foreigners in Taiwan?

You have to swat the damned credit card offering banks away from you here in HK.

HG

I can imagine a bit of both. :wink:

That seems to support my perspective on the whole matter of banks and foreigners in Taiwan: they are concerned about customers leaving the country and thus becoming (for all practical purposes) unreachable, and since there are no exit visas anymore that requirement they created is perhaps the next best thing they can think of. :wink:[/quote]
Even if that were the case, don’t you think a guarantor of payment by a Taiwanese citizen make more sense than a “guarantor” of residence, which doesn’t exist because in the case of divorce or firing the foreigner is SOL anyway? It makes no sense at all, even from the argument of foreigners possibly leaving behind bad debt. Guarantee of payment is far more logical than guarantee of residence.

Their loss. And NPC’s loss. I will take my gas guzzling Benz to CPC using a member card there and use one of my other 3 credit cards. Screw Sinopac and NPC.