Recommendation for CC - Using EX

[ngerasimatos]

Was talking credit with my friend and after a long talk, he decided its time for him to apply for a new CC. He is going on vacation to Hong Kong for a few months and currently only has Amex cards (Blue and a Green).

His highest score is a 731 with EX, annual documented income is 100k, DTI is low, and Util is low as well. He does have one bad item, on his car loan its showing a 30 day late, and a 60 day late from last year (11 months old)

Any recommendations on who he should apply with? He banks with B of A for both personal and business. He is a S-Corp if that matters. 

[haulingthescoreup]

It's a little spooky to have negatives under a year old when you go apping. That's a scenario for minimal limits, high APR's, and outright denials.

When is he leaving? Can he delay applying until his lates hit one year? And it seems really variable as to whether one year = the beginning of the month in which they hit or the actual anniversary date.

Speaking in very general terms, Cap One is good b/c you avoid the foreign transaction fee. (You might want to do some hunting. There was a thread about good cards for overseas within the last 10 days - 2 weeks, I think.) HSBC might be useful in that (despite the experience of US customers), it's a prime bank in the Far East.

The AmEx cards will be fine unless the network goes down, or if they weird out on him. So I agree that a Visa or MC of some variety would be smart.

[ngerasimatos]

He can delay until after the one year mark, putting him near 13 months since he isn't leaving until right around then. I think he is looking at a card with Citi.

I worked with him sending GW letters, and gotten no responses from the creditor to remove the lates.

Basically, one month he was late and they charged him a late fee, he had the account setup to auto deduct but it was only pulling the monthly amount and didn't cover the the late fee.

So, it went from 30 days, to 60 days late. 

Then he got a legal notice in the mail basically threatening him as to the actions the bank could take against him for being late. Such a stupid situation, all for a late fee.

He called asking them to remove it, they denied him. I told him to send a letter. That didn't work. He filed a BBB complaint, and they never replied to it and BBB eventually closed it.