Keeping US bank cards while living in Argentina?

[sergio]

I assume when it comes to dealing with people living abroad, some banks are friendlier than others.

If you live outside your country and the bank knows this, how can a bank assess your creditworthiness? And how can they collect on bad debt. Surely this si why they close the accounts of people who live abroad.

 

[LuckyLuke]

Does your virtual mailbox forward your credit cards to you?

They have integrated options to forward mail via USPS or Fed Ex. I've used both domestically to send cards to a family member to hold on to.

 

[rdcooper]

They have integrated options to forward mail via USPS or Fed Ex. I've used both domestically to send cards to a family member to hold on to.

Will they forward it internationally?

 

[LuckyLuke]

Will they forward it internationally?

They promote themselves as "mail anywhere" and give the option to send international, though I've never tried it. I'm sure you can contact them or look into their how-to videos if you want to see the details. They charge $20 a month for mail processing.

 

[devilclam]

Are you able to keep your US credit and debit cards while living in Argentina? I've been told that banks will cancel your accounts if they find out you live overseas. I wasn't planning on notifying them of a foreign address change and was planning on using a virtual mailbox. I've also heard that virtual addresses are not accepted by banks and that they are able to distinguish it from a regular address. Does anyone have any experience with this? How do you get your cards renewed without traveling back to the US?

I've kept a permanent address in the states for taxes etc. I just have my cards reissued Everytime I go back to the states. It's been almost 3 years and I use exclusively US cards

 

[Caribbean Cool]

Personally, I haven't found virtual addresses to be a problem. I have all my bank and credit cards going to a Traveling Mailbox location and it's been working fine. It is a physical address as opposed to a PO box and I think that's all that really matters.

That being said there's really nothing you can do about what the banks will decide. For example, you can have all your mail going to a friend's house, but do you think the credit card company doesn't know you are down here when 100% of your transactions are in pesos for a year straight? Do you think your bank won't realize you left the US when the only debits are Western Union transfers or international wire transfers? That your cell phone provider won't see you on roaming 24/7 or that anyone with access to your tax records won't see a Foreign Income Tax Exclusion. We are deluding ourselves that we can hide from the system.

The uncomfortable truth is that sooner or later you will want to open an international account just in case and have a back up plan to avoid any financial interruptions. BTW, I received notice last year from Merrill Lynch that they were closing my SEP-IRA because I was out of the country. I sold everything (jokes on them, I'm making twice the returns down here), and here we are a year later and the account is still open.

Banks don't know nor care

 

[wineguy999]

I use all of my US cards, specially when I travel abroad. Don’t lose your credit record. My cards never reach me by regular mail because the local postal service was always deficient so I call the banks to send the cards to me via courier with a tracking number and it works perfectly that way. One of my banks has my home address as my mailing address, the other bank has a mailing US address but they have my residence address here.

Silvie, do you have some insight as to why one should be concerned with their credit record when they have no intention to return to the USA?

 

[wineguy999]

Banks don't know nor care

Sadly, banks care far too much about details that we should be able to keep private - and I'm not referring to anything illegal or immoral.

 

[LuckyLuke]

Silvie, do you have some insight as to why one should be concerned with their credit record when they have no intention to return to the USA?

Last month, thanks to my credit score, I was able to get a $15,000 balance transfer from a credit card offering 12 month financing at 0%. I invite you to look for similar financing down here. You won't find anything close. It's very helpful to have that kind of affordable credit access for emergencies, small business start ups, or even buying a car.

 

[Silvie]

Silvie, do you have some insight as to why one should be concerned with their credit record when they have no intention to return to the USA?

Perhaps you may eventually need to get an upgrade on your card credit limit? I needed one and I got an increase after I moved abroad. Besides, you should “never say never” because you just don’t know the strange turns of life and you may just have to go back at some point. This already happened to me, I had to return to a place where I had already sworn to never go back…. Hehehe.