I have been a fan of American Express ever since I started using the Amex Membership Rewards Credit Card in 2017. We all know about the awesome customer service of Amex but not many people know a feature provided by Amex, which helps a lot with starting our credit history when we move to a new country of residence. In this post, I’ll explain the Amex Global Relationship feature which enables us to get an American Express Credit card in a new country with no credit history in the new country and will tell my experience with the same.
American Express provides Global Relationship to its cardholders which enables you to get a new Amex Credit Card if you move to a new country of residence, given you are already an Amex Card holder in your old country. Not only the process is seamless, it is a very awesome feature as it provides the choice of almost all the individual credit cards present in the new country when you don’t have a credit history. You don’t have to opt-in for a secured credit card and block your money for building your credit score. Let us see the benefits of this feature.
Benefits of Amex Global Membership
- You get a credit card in the new country which helps you start a new credit history there without any legal documents such as Social Security number in USA.
- You get to keep your American Express ‘Member since’ date which is printed on the credit card (feels good😅😅).
- Your existing cards are not impacted. If you chose to keep the current cards active, you can do that.
- You don’t have to opt for a secured card to build your credit history. So, better rewards…. 😁
Eligibility for getting an Amex Card in the new country of residence
- You need to have an active American Express Credit Card for at least 3 months in your old country of residence before you apply for a new card in your new country of residence
- You need to have a residence address in the new country. The card can only be delivered within that country.
- You need to have a good payment history with Amex in the old country of residence.
How to apply
To apply, you need to login into Amex portal in a Desktop browser -> Go to ‘Account Management’, scroll down to ‘Transfer your Card to a new country of residence‘.
You will need to select your new country of residence, enter your new country Residence address and phone number and select the card variant you wish to apply for.
And done, you will be displayed an approval message and your new card will be delivered in 2 weeks. In some cases, Amex may ask for additional documentation for identity verification.
My Experience with the application
I recently moved from India to USA on L1 Visa, and didn’t have credit history here. However, I had 3 American Express Credit Cards (Amex MRCC, Amex Gold Charge Card and Amex Platinum Travel Credit Card), with the oldest card being MRCC and highest limit being Rs 6.17L on my Platinum Travel Credit Card. I applied for an American Express Bluecash Preferred card using my Indian relationship with American Express. The card was instantly approved with a limit of $8000, which is a decent limit to start with and the physical card was delivered to me in ~10 days after approval.
A few days after the first bill was generated, it was reported to the credit rating agencies and I could see my TransUnion score and Experian Score generated. Overall, it was a pretty seamless experience onboarding American Express and as of this date, I have 3 American Express Credit Cards in in India and 3 in the US. Hoping to add more in the future 😁😁
If you have plans to relocate to a new country where American Express has a presence, I would suggest to apply for an American Express Credit Card as soon as the RBI ban is lifted if you don’t already hold an Amex in India 😃
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Hi! I’m Gaurav, a Software Engineer by profession and a credit card enthusiast by heart. I love earning reward points and cashbacks from credit cards and giving ‘gyaan’ on credit cards and personal finance.