No SSN/ITIN Credit Cards

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone!
I m a nomad and always traveling, in the beggining of the year I decided to open an account in BOFA with a Secure Credit card, I made an deposit of 6000U$ on the secure card. 

This week, I came back to the US and decided to apply online for the new Amex Rose Gold and got approved by phone, then I tried applying also for the Chase Saphire Reserve, BOFA Rewards and the Capital One Venture, all online (In the SSN field I put 000000001)

BOFA rejected my application saying that I have a secure account with them (???), Capital One said I don`t have enough credit history and Chase asked me to send some documents (Which I will try to do this week)

Currently my Credit Score with Amex and BOFA is 742 

I read in some websites that only Amex allows people without ITIN and SSN to have credit cards, but I read some other posts here from people that ended up getting it, I dont hold any accounts with Chase, should I try opening an account there before sending the docs?

[Malcono]

As far as I know, only Amex will allow that.

BoA and Wells Fargo will allow Secured cards to build up history.

BoA will graduate once you get an SSN/ITIN, Wells Fargo won't graduate unless you are a legal resident.

Cheers.

[SummerOf17]

I know Citi has CCs in other than US countries for a Fact.

Friend had a Visa Card from Citi in Russia with 10K limit more than 4 years ago, with an active checking account though.

Just throwing it out there....

Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

What kind of documents did chase ask for? I'm amazed they didn't immediatly denied you with no valid tax ID and less than a year history.

[Anonymous]

Keep us updated about chase and what documents they asked for, I thought they reject applications without ssn automatically

[SBR249]

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@SummerOf17 wrote:

I know Citi has CCs in other than US countries for a Fact.

Friend had a Visa Card from Citi in Russia with 10K limit more than 4 years ago, with an active checking account though.

Just throwing it out there....

Good Luck.

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Lots of international lenders offer CCs in different countries. AmEx has cards in many countries. Barclays, HSBC, Santander, etc. certainly offer cards in both US and Europe. ICBC offers cards in the US and China. Banco do Brasil offers cards in the US. TD offers cards in US and Canada. The list goes on. The key is that bank operations in other countries do not translate across international borders and neither does your credit history. Citi offering a card in Russia does not mean their American bank will approve the same person for a card in the US or vice versa. 

PS: yes, I know about the AmEx global transfer program and HSBC's transfer program for high value clients. I've used the AmEx program before in fact. But it's not a transfer of credit history or event account history in the former case. Don't know about HSBC. 

[Anonymous]

Contrary to popular misunderstanding of the USA PATRIOT Act and Expanded KYC requirements placed on Banks by law they do not have to demand a Tax ID.  This is entirely up to the bank.  They are required to verify through other means that you are who you say you are, but there are many ways that can be done without those 9 digits.

Also, if you think that the Tax ID is all that is used to identify you when you provide it you might be surprised to learn that there are several other services that offer information to banks similar to the credit bureaus to verify your identity and risk rating....and deep breath.

What I wouldn’t do is enter a number when asked for an SSN that is anything other than your SSN.  If the online app will not let you past the page without filling in something then close the page and phone in your application.  Employees of the bank are allowed to enter all 9s, but not you.  It’s technically a lie. If your name is “Joe” and the system asks for your First Name and you enter “Henry” it is fraud...no different with your SSN.  Systems are highly automated these days and you may inadvertently cause a number to appear on your credit report that raises a red flag to future systems or underwriters.  Besides most systems have field level validation and know a 999999999 or 000000001 is not a valid SSN and should stop you from going further.  Just because you CAN do it doesn’t mean you should it.

IMHO and YMMV