Credit Cards for Foreigners - General Discussion

What’s the best american credit card? Will they send it to a taiwanese address? I don’t have any credit and am starting to think maybe I should get it since eventually I want to buy an American house using my VA loan benefit (technically there’s no credit requirement, but very few banks will give you the VA backed loan with no credit even though the VA is basically acting as a guarantor)

I’m not American, so i dont know. To the best of my knowledge you wont get a card sent to TW, you need a US address to apply for the card and to receive it. if you can use parents/brother address and ask them to fedex it to you it will do the trick.
I know from friends experience that using a US card here is not a big problem, just gettign it here is a small hurdle.

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You can try Capital One. At one point I was able to get them to put a TW billing address on the card and send replacements to TW, but this was several years ago. YMMV.

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Bear in mind that this is likely a charge card rather than a credit card.

I have a REI credit card that I was able to use my Taiwan address.

I would be paying my balance off at the end of each month anyway, so that would be fine. Although I don’t think this is a charge card.

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i have one, and it is a credit card, not charge card.

OK, perhaps they also have a different model in Taiwan. My Taiwan AMEX is definitely not a credit card. What rate do they charge on yours?

9.99%

I hope you are paying back on time :sweat_smile:

yes, i pay in full every month.
9.99% is actually the lowest rate, according to their brochure it can go up to 14.99%

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It used to be up to 20% at one time but the government a few years ago put in a law that told them it could only be up to 15%

Plus now the banks use an algorithm to determine risk and my interest rate is all over the place.

Nice! Another shop where I spend way too much.

He is applying to a credit card. That one and the other plastic platinum ones that say 信用金卡 are special credit cards for the APAC market, the other ones are cash cards.

Just an update RE: Costco card (applied in Hsinchu). Today I got an update saying that they need extra documents. Turns out they didn’t need anything extra but my name is too long to fit on bank cards and they just needed to know the correct way to shorten it! (AKA remove the middle names)

She said the credit limit and card have already been approved but I haven’t received any emails or anything yet. So basically it’s been (supposedly) approved without any financial information from me except for the balance in my Cathay account.

Also my AMEX is a credit card, not a charge card and I pay the balance every month too
:slight_smile:

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Yup, it is more clear in the monthly statements where you will see 2 things you don’t see on a cash card: 1) credit limit and 2) minimum payment

I had one of the credit cards before and switched to a cash card and those 2 disappeared.

Costco card has officially been approved, only a $30,000 limit though. It’s fine for me as it’s just a back up card for places that don’t accept amex :sweat_smile:

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It’s not credit card but viza debit card from Cathay United Bank is excellent for taiwan standards. It’s accepted in Costco, there is ATM in many family marts and mrt stations, they also have ATM that accepts coins for deposit. It’s viza debit+ easy card with option to automatically top up. Works with Google pay, never had issues buying online or abroad, internet banking is translated in decent English, while app is fully Chinese. Cathay Bank solves all mine banking problems in less than 15 minutes, while had experience staying in other banks 45 minutes and more. Oh and works in Family Mart, 7/11 and Pxmart and can have stored receipt on so if you win lottery automatically goes in your account.

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When your Amex was approved, did they send you an email or did a card just arrive in the post?

It just arrived in the mail

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