Opened a BofA checking account roughly 3-4 months ago in person. Applied over the phone this week for one of the cards: Here is how the flow goes: -Select 2 to speak to the sales team about credit cards. -Prompt asks you to enter last 4 of your social. -Agent answers by giving you their name and location. -Full name including middle name -Asked if I had any priority code or saw an offer online? The offer's terms read a first time. -DOB -Address - if it's a mailing and/or physical. If owned or rented. How much monthly leaase. -Country/countries of Citizenship -If you are resident or non-resident. What is your country of residence. -Your type of employment and a category for your job (employer not requested) -If self employed? -How much revenue. If the amount is per month or annual. -If revenue comes from employment. A disclaimer about how you can count revenue. -Asked for full SSN number. No problem in giving an ITIN ("yea we take that") -Mentioned that I had a checking account with BOA, agent said my profile had already shown up after I gave my name and DOB. -Very long disclaimer going through most of the terms that had been mentioned, APRs, application stuff, consent, credit lines, etc. -Asked to confirm if I agreed to the conditions and wanted to go forward. -Asked to give a final 'Yes' after a recorded message with my name and the card requested. -Card approved on the spot and CL given. No email received. -Text message sent to confirm my identity. Seems that the new card created a second profile and the agent couldn't merge them until the card number was generated. I was told to either call back the following day or upon receiving the card. Agent was super friendly, US based and knew Canada very well. The agent and I actually spoke quite a bit throughout the call (roughly 30 minutes). Calling BOA is a very different experience to Amex, Chase, Citi, Barclays all of whom are a lot less personal and not at all into rapport building or whose small-talk is a lot more scripted (though most of those banks have offshore call centers, so that might be a reason).

Hi guys, Looks like i will have activate my Wells Fargo debit and credit cards in Australia, since the cards got delivered to my New York Anytime Mailbox address after i left New York. Has anyone here got a Wells Fargo card and it got activated overseas ? If so, were there any problems? I have activated my Capitol One and US AMEX cards in Australia, and had no problems. Hopefully it wil be the same for Wells Fargo.

Saw the approval posts here recommending BoA online - went for it today, made it all the way to the final step, then stopped and want to share what I found before someone else clicks through without reading. If you select "Resident Alien" in the application (which is what makes the online flow work), the last screen is basically a W-9 form. You're certifying, under penalty of perjury, that you're a "U.S. citizen or other U.S. person." Resident Alien" is a tax term, not something that comes with your ITIN. To actually qualify you need one of:A Green Card, or 183+ days physically in the US or A formal first-year election If you live abroad and just have an ITIN, technically you're a Non-Resident Alien. The correct form is W-8BEN, not W-9. Stuff that can go wrong if you sign W-9 anyway: - Account closed at the next yearly KYC review - When a bank closes you for fraud/misrep, they report it to ChexSystems and Early Warning Services (EWS). EWS is owned by Chase, BofA, Wells, Cap One, US Bank, PNC, Truist — they all see each other's flags in real time. ChexSystems sticks for 5 years. Most mainstream US banks pull both before opening anything new. - Automatic 24% backup withholding on interest - IRS expects a full 1040 with worldwide income - Any future US visa or ESTA form asks if you ever made a false statement to get a benefit. Bank account counts. Just wanted folks to know what's behind that final checkbox before clicking. Not worth it in my opinion.

Today I visited a Citibank branch to continue setting up my US banking stack — and the experience was very different compared to other banks. This time, the process was much more strict when it came to documentation. The only forms of address verification they accepted in-branch were: - Lease agreement - Utility bill I asked if I could use a bank statement (like I did successfully elsewhere), but they were very clear that this was not accepted in person. However, they did mention something interesting: 👉 Opening the account online might allow more flexibility with the type of documents accepted — including potentially using a bank statement. So the limitation seems to be more about the in-branch process rather than a hard restriction across the board. Overall takeaway: - In-branch = stricter, very traditional requirements - Online = potentially more flexible If you’re in a similar situation (no utility bill or lease yet), going directly online might save you a trip. I’ll keep testing different banks to compare processes and see which one is actually the most flexible for non-residents. If you’ve tried opening with Citibank online, curious to hear your experience 👇

Something I’m still trying to wrap my head around: In the Middle East, credit card cycling is healthy behavior. If someone maxes a card and pays it off multiple times a month, it’s seen as: - excess liquidity - strong cash flow - disciplined usage Basically: you clearly have money. In the US, it’s almost flipped. Cycling can spook issuers, trigger reviews, or even limit increases. What’s odd to me is that from a risk lens, cycling should be safer: - balances are cleared early - exposure is constantly reset - no interest, no delinquencies Yet the advice is often: don’t do it too much.