Smeagol

Don, why are you suspicious?

Smeagol

Ok, just checked out the terms and conditions. You must be a permanent resident of the US..... Damn

DonTopaz

All of the airline & hotel cards with which I'm familiar have similar restrictions -- the cards are all country-specific. (For example, my BA card issued by Chase has some terrific bonuses, but it's only for U.S. residents. But UK residents can get a BA AmEx and Mastercard from Lloyds that are unavailable to me.)

520

Smeagol,sorry that you won't get to take advantage of the Hyatt bonanza. I wrote a LONG post on this thread about the wonders of the Hyatt card several days ago--but for some reason it wasn't posted. But for those other Fodorites who are reading here still--my husband and I EACH got one, and we used each for a total of four nights in Hong Kong at the TST Regency there--PLUS one night with points from another card. AND Hyatt upgraded us to the same level (Harborview room) that we'd booked with the non-Hyatt credit card--so for the price of two annual fees of $75.00, we had four nights of a $400 per night room , and a fifth from another card. What's so amazing about the Hyatt card is, as noted above, it can be used at any level of Hyatt anywhere in the world. For anyone who's travelling where there're Hyatts, it's a great deal. It wasn't on offer for a few months recently, so it makes sense to get one while the offer is back--and also to allow time before one's trip to charge the required am't ($1,000, I believe, over a four month period--)so that the miles can be credited to one's account in time to get the desired reservations. And, like others have noted, Chase seems only too happy to have one take out several charge cards with them.

crellston

Smeagol, i think that one of the reasons that UK nationals cannot obtain Credit cards in the USA and vice that it would breach both countries AML ( Anti Money Laundering ) procedures which insist on a permanent address in that country where a card is applied for. Shame because the loyalty programmes in the US seem to be a lot better than ours!

Hanuman

crellston I don't think that's is true. The reason is more to do with if you have enough collateral and or credit in the country where the card is being applied for.

crellston

Sorry Hanuman but I disagree. Full AML checks have to be carried out to obtain any form of financial product in the UK. This will involve production of bank statements/ utility bills/ passport/ driving license etc. plus a check on the electoral roll for UK national. Other checks are possible for non nationals but are time consuming and comparatively expensive leading to most providers silly not offering products to non nationals. Different rules apply to offshore financial products. Collateral is rarely, if ever, needed for credit cards in the UK at least but proof of income sometimes is and evidence of other credit cards sometimes helps but the norm is to run credit reference checks online once identity has been established.

rhkkmk

i'm thinking that chase relies on the american credit bureaus for personal info and that is not available for foreigners..

filmwill

Since this is a travel forum -- and not a financial one -- I'll try not to complicate this too much with my questions. But...I am curious about this offer. Curious, but definitely apprehensive.

Mostly because with 2 Chase cards already in-hand (in addition to 2 Amex cards) i'm a bit apprehensive about having yet *another* credit card...and apprehensive about the likelihood of being approved for a 3rd Chase card.

For those of you with experience in the credit card shuffle...do you normally open and then eventually close these one-off "offer" cards? I've been lured by 2 "offer" cards before and instead of closing them I've (probably incorrectly) left them open for fear of dinging my (pretty decent) credit score. I have to imagine that at a certain point, there's such a thing as "too many" credit cards.

Kathie

Filmwill, I have two other Chase cards (one with a ridiculously high credit limit), an AmEx and a BoA Alaska Air card and Chase was still willing to give me the Hyatt card. I would gladly have had them re-arrange my credit lines on my Chase cards, but they haven't asked. Once I actually get my Hyatt card, I might ask them to move some of my credit around, as I plan to use the Hyatt card exclusively in Japan, as there is no foreign exchange fee. I suppose if I was thinking of buying another house I might attend to what impact these cards have on my credit score, but I'm more focussed on the benefits of the cards.

My Alaska card gets us a buy one, get one ticket for $100 deal, which was great as it worked with first class tickets for our upcoming Hawaii trip. Beginning this year, it will no longer be valid for First Class tickets, so I'll have to decide whether to give it up.

My two Mileage Plus cards (one personal, one business) get United miles, and we are flying free to Japan in First courtesy of United Mileage Plus.

Our Costco AmEx card gives us cash back, and the check arrives each year just before we go to Kauai. Our check this year will be for over $400, thanks to putting part of our home remodeling on the AmEx.

Since we pay off all cards every month, we never incur any interest charges, so I consider all of the benefits of the various cards to be free, minus fairly minor annual fees in the $75 range.

I do close any cards I'm just not using after a year of no use (so I don't incur another annual fee).

Smeagol

Seriously you guys are killing me....l . My tesco's card only gets me free groceries..l.

HappyTrvlr

We used our two free nights from the Hyatt card at Beijing Grand Hyatt, very nice hotel. Now we get another free night every year when we renew the card, but only at Hyatts levels 1-4. Still a good deal.

Craig

Our credit card experiences have been similar to Kathie's. Jeane and I have both personal and business cards with Chase. We actually have 2 personal (going on 3 with the Hyatt one). The mileage plus Explorer card gets you and your traveling companion's first bag free (when flying in steerage) as well as 2 United Club passes each year. We will be cutting back but each card seems to have its features and we have not flown in coach to Asia---ever, because of the miles we rack up on the cards.

We have also used the Alaska Air card for first class tix to Kauai from the east coast...

Kathie

And Filmwill, if you and David each get a card, you can have 4 nights free at the Hyatt Kyoto and you won't worry about the cost of breakfast!

DonTopaz

Having lots of credit cards does not adversely affect your credit score -- in fact, having lots of unused credit ctually helps your score. A small hit to your credit score will occur each time you apply for a credit card, as that will count as a credit "pull," but the effect of that hit (usually less than 10 pts) disappears after a month or two. And definitely not a problem to cancel a card after 6 months or so.

Remember that the Hyatt card has two particularly useful benefits in addition to the 2 free nights: no foreign transaction fees, and immediate Platinum status at Hyatt. When you use the card at Hyatt hotels, you effectively get 8.75 points per $ spent (5 points/$ for normal Hyatt points, plus 15% bonus for Platinum members, plus 3 points/$ for card use at Hyatt).

filmwill

Don, what if you already have Platinum status at Hyatt (which I do)? Is there a bump up for those already at that level?

Kathie

Filmwill, yup, you get diamond status.

filmwill

Well paint my door red and call me Elizabeth Arden. I'm applying now.

filmwill

Well I guess no need for the worry. I was approved as soon as I submit on the website.

Kathie

Great!