AMEX - Moving Abroad & Referral / Signup Bonuses

[blueythecat]

Hi AFF'rs,

I have family moving overseas and was wondering if it is possible to take advantage of both local sign-on bonuses in the country I'm moving to and use the AMEX moving abroad program? Based on some reading I've done, I think it is, but i wanted to confirm.

If it is possible would the best steps be as follows (or is something else better??):
1. Signup for a AMEX card in the destination country using an appropriate referral link or offer
2. Contact the AMEX Global transfers team to have them process the application

Would be very grateful for others experience with this, as I'm not exactly sure of the best way to go about it.

 

[burmans]

Not sure where you are moving too but in general lenders have that catch 22 thing where they want to see you have proven credit history before they will lend to you (or at least undertake significant lending). My understanding is the Global transfers team and the Credit Decisioning team are quite different teams and it is unlike the transfers teams will be able to "influence" the decisioning team.

However using the Global transfers option is a good way to fairly quickly get a credit history overseas, so I would definitely look to leverage this. It will probably take a few months to build enough history that lenders will allow you to do (bulk) local sign ups but would definitely be faster than trying to start from scratch.

 

[blueythecat]

I did a bit more Googling and it seems it might be possible to apply for a bonus points offer and then have the AMEX Global Transfer team take over the application:

AMEX Global Transfer (Canada -> USA) - Don't Call the Airline!

Any AFF'rs have personal experience with making this work. The destination country will be Canada.

 

[dannnnl]

Calling Amex GT team defintiely can get the sign up bonus as long as you meet the transfer requirement.

I did transfer my card to US and successfully recieved the bonus points after spending met

 

[blueythecat]

Calling Amex GT team defintiely can get the sign up bonus as long as you meet the transfer requirement.

I did transfer my card to US and successfully recieved the bonus points after spending met

Very good to know. Anyone had any luck using a referral link and getting the higher signon bonuses they often offer?

 

[dannnnl]

Very good to know. Anyone had any luck using a referral link and getting the higher signon bonuses they often offer?

Not sure about Canada, For GT to US, you will not able to use any referral link as online application requires you submit SSN.

 

[blueythecat]

Not sure about Canada, For GT to US, you will not able to use any referral link as online application requires you submit SSN.

Thanks for the tip. I'll check that out for Canada if they decide to go down the referral path, which is obviously seems attractive for the additional points.