Anyone else hit this problem?
Last month my credit cards reached their effective date and my checks ran out. So naturally, I applied to my bank for new ones. After several exchanges, I got this:
sigh< So now I can’t get a US credit card or US checks.
Vorkosigan
Is the official residence on your account/credit card listed as Taiwan or the USA?
Do you have any family back in the USA? If so, I would use their address. That’s what I’m currently doing, and I pay my bill electronically, so I don’t even need the paper statement that they send to my parent’s house.
This has to be a joke. There a millions of U.S. citizens living abroad. None of them are going to be allowed a checking or credit card account in the U.S.?
Seems that other posters’ suggestions that you use a U.S. address is one effective loophole.
Nope. The bank SPECIFICALLY disallowed a US address because she knows I live overseas. In other words, it is location, not address, that counts. I couldn’t use my 'rents because they are on a three-month vacation, and the bank had sent me stuff to my Taiwan address no problem.
Vorkosigan
This is BS, just change your address to a US address, never give these jerks your overseas address. I also suggest you start doing all your banking online, doing so will alleviate even more problems.
-Sorry just saw your latest post, if they know you live overseas, then change banks and don’t give your Taiwan address to the new bank. There are big international banks that allow you to open an account online.
-One more thing, you say SHE knows you live overseas, well then talk to someone else at the bank to get your address changed, tell them you just moved back to the states, lie lie lie, because you know they do!
So what are we supposed to do now – can’t get services from our own country and can’t get them here??? SHeesh!!
Where can we get more information on what this “Patriot Act” covers and entails?
Infriggencredible. Write your congressman. Write now, write later, do not stop writing.
Chou
I told Amex I was moving here before I left. They added a tag somewhere on my account that says “NON U.S. CREDIT CARD” .Strangely enough I am from Canada! The Amex works fine here. Actually it is expiring this month. My father has already received the replacement card and is sending it over. Amex does not send any bills to my parents, I pay everything online. They’ve even increased my credit line since I’ve been in Taiwan.
I have an Amex Airmiles Card.
I have a USA credit card with HSBC in the US and my address and correspondance is my Taiwan address. Havent had any of these problems. Maybe you should switch banks.
The key point Vorkosigan made is that current credit card worked fine until the expiration date last month and then he couldn’t get a new one since a non-USA address was used and that supposedly is now a no-no under the Patriot Act.
I wonder if this is just a goof up with that one bank or have all US credit card issuers been forced to adopt this policy? If the later is the case then as your credit cards expire in the coming months you will not be able to get a new card if you continue to use an overseas address.
My cc expires in just a couple of months so I will definitely check with the bank before then about their policy. If they say the same thing, then I figure I’ll just use a relative’s address as a US contact address and then switch to electronic statements that I access online.
I suggest that everyone with a US issued credit card call their banks and ask about their policy regarding overseas cardholders. Don’t wait until the card expires before taking action.
And make sure you vote out the idiots that passed that vile law as soon as you can.
Brian
Wazai,
Are you nuts?! Call the cc company and ask them? Ignorance is bliss don’t inquire about it! I have had several credit cards expire and they have sent me a new card, some I have canceled and they even sent me a new card. Just change your address to a US address and do your banking online, then they don’t have to know shit! This is the way I prefer it!
Most of these customer service reps don’t know shit, don’t tell them what’s going on!
You probably shouldn’t use your American credit card as it gives uncle Sam unrestricted access to your finances for tax collection purposes.
As for checks, you don’t have to have your bank make your checks. You can have them printed up here in Taiwan for a much better price.
From what I have read many of the provisions in the patriot act have an expiration clause.
I have had no problems at all with using an American credit card in Taiwan.
I have a VISA credit card which was issued by an American bank, and they have been sending the bill to my Taiwan address for the past 7 years! It’s now been two years since 9/11, and the bank that issued my credit card has never told me that there is any problem with living overseas and having an American credit card.
The only problem I had is that by the time the bills came, it was usually already too late to pay them without interest. So a few years ago, I arranged for my credit card to be a “debit card”, which means that the money automatically comes from my American bank account, so now I never have to worry about paying the bills.
Last year, I finally got a credit card issued by a Taiwanese bank, which is a lot more convenient to pay, but the limit is only NT$10,000, which is less than 1/10 of the limit on my American credit card. And I had to have a Taiwanese person be my “guarantor”.
I wondered if anyone else had run into this problem; it may simply be my bank’s interpretation of the Patriot Act.
Using online banking is not a good answer to the bank’s knowing about the move. My rep knew that I had accessed the account from overseas. The bank knows where the accessing computer is located even if they can’t prove it was you.
I use the online system for most things. But take my US internet space. I pay 10.00 a month for 100 MB if I use a credit card, 19.43 if I use a check. And so on. If I move my massive website all the people who have links to me go dead.
I am not only writing my Congressman, but also the Banking associations. They have lots of clout.
Vorkosigan
Vorkosigan,
So what, you just say you are on an extended vacation! All my credit card companies know I am overseas, they even have my phone number here, and I have had no problems getting new cards.
I’m not real clear with how paying your website hosting fee’s with your credit card has anything to do with losing people who link to you… Does your bank have it’s own hosting service or something? You will not lose any links if you only most your hosting service and still use the same domain name. For example if you use vorkosigan.com and use networksolutions as your hosting provider and you change your hosting services to register.com, your domain name (vorkosigan.com will stay the same, you’ll never lose any links… Maybe I am not clear with what you mean.
Some random observations:
(1) Why not switch to a non-U.S. bank? (Jersey? Isle of Man?)
(2) Checks don’t have to be printed by your bank. In fact, they can be written on anything, so long as all the information is on them. (One peace protester recently tried to pay his court fine with a check chiseled onto a tombstone.)
(3) Don’t write your congressman. You have no congressman.
eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance … lysis.html
quote Don’t write your congressman. You have no congressman.
[/quote]
If you would give your support to the Overseas Americans in Taiwan you might get a congressman.
Click the link below.