I just did this. I opened a gold amex in Australia last year when offered it, and used it just for grocery shopping for 6-8 months.

Now I'm ready to go to the US. I called Amex in Aus and they said I need to do the global transfer form, and to call the US office. I called the US office, thinking they'd email or post me a form.

Instead, she asked if I had time to discuss it then, went through some questions about my new address, new salary and employer etc.. and opened a US card right then with a $5000 limit to start with. I chose the clear card.

With any luck, the card will be waiting at my house in the US when I arrive early next week. I was very surprised how easy it was.

let me know if it did work out. seems too good to be true

a lot of stuff amex does semes too good to be true

like when I got pissed off tuesday evening with a delay and lack of communication from a vendor selling me a $300 case for my pc

all charges were refunded to my account in about 3 minutes...

cool- so u will recomend american express credit card- good

I've posted a few times on this forum about how wonderful Amex has been in our experience - this was with two international moves, from the UK to Singapore and Singapore to the US. (Husband once went on a three week trip to the Far East and left his wallet at home in England - had no cash or credit cards on him, only his passport! Amex issued a new card in Hong Kong whilst he was still on the plane and gave him a cash advance...)

***Best of all.....if you collect the Amex Reward Points (we save ours for flights) they will transfer your existing ones to your new card in your new country.***

Tip: keep your UK card going for a few weeks after arrival in the States. My husband opened a new US Amex card before arriving in the States and had it sent c/o his boss at his new office. The card (and my additional card) arrived a couple of weeks or so before we did.....and so had the new membership card bill.

Unfortunately they cancelled the card as by the time we had been to the bank and got a few temporary cheques and mailed it in, Amex cancelled the cards due to non-payment. (On hindsight I would have gone to an Amex travel office in NYC and paid it there, didn't think of it at the time). Fortunately we still had our Singapore Amex cards, but it was quickly resolved and they sent new Amex cards immediately.

Other good reasons for using an Amex card ie. when renting a car in the US and UK - and help on which type of Amex card would be the best one for your own personal circumstances:

http://www.dealreviews.net/

(Click on 'Amex' in the labels section on the right-hand side of the page).

wow
american express seems like a good card to have in uk if plans are to immigrate

does any one know of other credit cards with similar facility ie global transfer from uk to usa

I think, HSBC premier customers can do something similar.

is having a citibank account in uk makes it easier to open a citibank account in usa?

does capital or citibank credit cards do global transfers?

You should be able to get a citibank Pound/dollar account ..
if you putting a good sum in it ...

With it you used to get a US check book..may still do ..
http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/b...?merchant=citi

hmm i am planning to open a dollar account with citibank soon. but will citbank in usa open an account for me with the recommendation that i had a previous citibank account- my loyalty

If you are not yet a customer and have any questions or would like to open an account, please call
0800 00 88 00 (8am till 8pm, Monday to Friday

you dont need a credit history to open a bank account so this is a none issue - its totally different to credit cards - Citibank will open an account for you regardless

thank you all for advice about credit cards. american express looks like a win win option. yahoo

On the AMEX discusssion, I took the advice here and called global transfers. For me they were specific in that I had to be in the country before doing it, but she did say it'll only take 5-7 days to get my card! All seems too good to be true - but I'll take it!