Heading to work in the US. Card suggestions?

[Rory]

Hello!
I’m headed to work in the USA for 4 months and looking for good card suggestions that don’t charge a fee for using it over there.

Currently I hold a personal Amex Plat, and a generic visa debit from Halifax, but both charge for international transactions.

I’m a BA exec club person, so Avios perks or generic points would be a bonus.

Any ideas would be super appreciated!

Cheers,
Rory.

[Sam]

Talk to Amex and see if they will set you up an US card

If it was longer, I’d also suggest getting a us bank account

[can]

I’d go for the classics: Amex Hilton/bonvoy, chase BA and/or Chase sapphire.
Amex is easier to get without proper credit check. I do it when I visit for a few weeks.
And yes get a bank account even a fintech one.

[memesweeper]

If you don’t want a tax code or SSN *and* a bank account get the Amex ICC dollar card (and use Wise or Revolut to fund the Amex card, you may find the local bank account is a dark-ages thing with a poor app).

If you get these prerequisites sorted then the top-tier Amex Bonvoy has no FX fees, so you can keep using it when you return to the UK until the expiry date on the card. Any replacement, however, will only be sent to a US postal address, so try not to loose or damage it! As @Sam suggests, the UK team can help get this sorted.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[Reney]

can wrote:

I’d go for the classics: Amex Hilton/bonvoy, chase BA and/or Chase sapphire.
Amex is easier to get without proper credit check. I do it when I visit for a few weeks.
And yes get a bank account even a fintech one.

My experience is that Chase won’t approve any cards unless you have one year worth of credit records.

[Reney]

memesweeper wrote:

If you don’t want a tax code or SSN *and* a bank account get the Amex ICC dollar card (and use Wise or Revolut to fund the Amex card, you may find the local bank account is a dark-ages thing with a poor app).

If you get these prerequisites sorted then the top-tier Amex Bonvoy has no FX fees, so you can keep using it when you return to the UK until the expiry date on the card. Any replacement, however, will only be sent to a US postal address, so try not to loose or damage it! As @Sam suggests, the UK team can help get this sorted.

My experience is that Amex US when you move back to the UK would let you put your UK address on file and send you new cards to the UK but that was a couple of years ago.

[kai]

As you’ll have an address in the US, use Amex Global Transfer to get a US Amex there as they have substantially better benefits than any card in the UK. You don’t need to have SSN or ITIN.

[Andrew.]

You don’t mention if you are going to be paid in sterling or USD.

So, if you are going to be paid in Sterling, I’d suggest that you go for the Halifax Clarity Card.

It uses the standard Mastercard rate, with no FX fees taken by Halifax. A further benefit is that if you apply through online banking, Halifax will probably pre-approve it for you without a hard search on your credit file.

You can never have too few cards when travelling.