To summarize this article for those who complain about the ads on the page.
-A Costco credit card is the easiest way to get your foot in the door.
-Keep the card for a year and then apply for cards with higher limits at other banks
-Don’t make late payments.
The article goes into further depth. I know some complain about the ads but you need to pay for hosting somehow. Use an adblock if you really want.
In my oponion, this is not true. Cathay may be easy for foreigners, but not the easiest.
American Express Taiwan are far more likely to accept foreigners.
AMEX accepted me with zero credit history in Taiwan, whilst Cathay declined me.
Even Fubon gave me a credit card with no credit history, but yet, Cathay wouldn’t.
And yes, it was the Costco card.
AMEX are so good that they even let you apply online, just like Taiwanese. In fact, their service really has no differentiation for foreigners and Taiwanese, excellent service. Their cards aren’t that great or useful here, but if they are just for building history, then they’ll do just fine.
Also, after reading the article, here are my observations:
“The easiest way to check your credit score is with an “Alien citizen’s digital card”. Note that however, you need to change the system language on your computer to Chinese to make the system work.”
I have checked my credit score twice, and my computer is set to UK English.
“foreigner friendly bank such as E.Sun”
E.Sun is not what I would consider a foreigner friendly bank. Not awful, but not friendly…
Alright. @comfy123. We do appreciate the blog for being a helpful guide for foreigners in Taiwan. So… These are going to be the guidelines I suggest.
If you want to announce new articles, you can post them here. If someone asks a question in another topic that you think might help someone, you can link to the post here that contains the link to your site.
To link posts, select the time on the top right corner.
This will be the official topic for your blog posts.
Thanks for the feedback.
That is interesting as I had an error code. Upon calling for help they told me to change my system language and it worked!! So interesting to hear it worked for you!
They have become more friendly recently. More English service etc and I also got apologies about their old credit card policy. The contact I spoke to after my FSC complaint sorted out my card and even said to keep his contact in case I want to get a mortgage etc… and explained that he is making the policies much more friendly as he was once an expat in America. Honestly he’s an all round nice guy and the head of credit in the bank.
Interesting!! I will add that in and update the blog later! Thanks 
Thanks for setting that up Marco! I will message you if I run into any trouble with it.
Maybe because I’m on a Mac. Possible windows only issue?
Possible. I am running windows 10
Are the stuffs you wrote there written on JCIC’s website somewhere or on some Taiwanese blog?
How to deal with the pesky CRS/FATCA form
What are the implications of the CRS form? Should I fill it out?
The cheapest bank for transferring money/sending money home in Taiwan.
Checklist for opening a bank account in Taiwan
I had issues using a windows PC but none on a mac
Yeh I suggest using the Mac. I got it to work on the PC but only by changing all of the language settings to Chinese and changing the “Unicode” (whatever that is). All in all it was more trouble than it was worth. I will definitely use my mac next time.
