Questions and Answers

Hello Lucky,
Please, I need some help of really creative minds. For US citizens using credit cards for accruing miles (even for signing up) is great. But those programs simply do not exist in Europe. (I live in the Netherlands). And a European may not sign up with, let’s say, a Chase credit card, as one is not a US resident/citizen. Now the question for you who are Americans and in the know: how could I perfectly legally obtain a credit card in the US, with the perks for FF-ers attached? What would be needed? Is opening a bank account sufficient? That will probably not be possible without an IRS number, and so on. Is it an idea to open a ‘collective’, a ‘foundation’ as a legal person of sorts that allows FF-ers from non-US countries to participate? Then there would be an American bank account and address. This should all be completely legal and verifyable of course. As non-US citizen/resident I simply miss out on the very powerful tool that is the credit card with miles options. It’s simply non-existent in my country.
Thank you so much,
Erik (aka milesracer in FlyerTalk)

You’d need to at least obtain a US Taxpayer Identification number and a presence in the US in order to apply for credit cards and even then, you’d have to start with the simpler no fee cards since you wouldnt have a US credit history.

Have you checked out available rewards credit cards in the Netherlands? Considering KLM is your national airline, I believe they should have credit cards that earn FlyingBlue miles. Also, there may be some iteration of the Amex Gold/Platinum cards. Rewards are harder to earn but they are available.

Lastly, the following post may be of assistance: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/07/30/choose-credit-card-outside-us/[/URL]

[USER=29]@David W[/USER]

Sadly the Netherlands is not a good country for credit cards at all, almost seen as abnormal behavior.
[URL]http://pointstobemade.boardingarea.com/2013/10/28/dear-netherlands-please-start-using-credit-cards/[/URL]

See this reedit page from last year, in many cases you have problems even using a credit card in the Netherlands.
[URL]https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/40r6ug/debitcredit_cards_accepted_in_netherlands/[/URL]
For example biggest supermarket chain does not take any credit cards what so ever.

You are correct about the US Taxpayer Identification number, but no fee cards should not be needed in most cases.

Amex at the very least will use would uses a customers history elsewhere in the world with their cards as a basis for US cards.

Think CITI have something similar for existing customers from abroad.

The Amex International currency cards would be a good place to start as they don’t need any US government ID numbers and have the same transfer partners as the US cards.
[URL]https://www.americanexpress.com/icc/eurodollar/[/URL[/URL]

Erik welcome to the forum.

Just a word of warning if you plan to go down this route, it is possible. But will probably be expensive, easiest way to get a US Taxpayer Identification number is simply to buy a property