Strategy to obtain US Amex

[albyd]

Gave it a go the other day and ran into the same issue - please attend a branch for identification.

Funnily enough, I used to have a checking account with them which I opened in a branch. They let me use the branch address as the billing address. I guess that type of ‘selling’ led to some of Wells’ issues to work through the last little while.

 

[_TheTraveller_]

Thinking more about Bilt, the Obsidian one is effectively a CSP and Palladium is VX. Wonder if you can combo both up but I'm not sure the AFs will be worth it. Price to pay to access Hyatt and AS.

 

[DAC1]

I will do some $500 transfers to the US account in preparation for my amex GT - will use this to pay the US amex anyway.. i think this is cheaper than Wise?

Transfers from where? It’s pretty hard to get cheaper than Wise. Revolut can sometimes be cheaper.

Anyone had any luck calling HSBC US to generate a statement earlier? - say in 15days so that I can use it as the proof of address amex is asking for?

Won’t work. I suspect it is unlikely that HSBC will do so but even if they did, if you read this entire thread, you would have seen multiple data points where Amex requires a statement that is for a period that is at least 25 or 30 days long.

 

[metaphase]

Yep I've got Revolut Premium (seem to have been grandfathered into it for free for some reason!) and rates with that seem to be the best I can find so I just use that to transfer to HSBC. There's per-transfer fees so I tend to do a few k at a time and put it in the 'Premier Relationship Saving' account for 3.3% - not amazing but not dreadful and means I've got funds in the US ready to go to pay bills each month by AutoPay.