Getting an American Visa Credit Card
Hi this will be our 2nd year being snowbirds from Alberta. We currently have an RBC Georgia American Visa and bank account. Not happy with it as they are not able to send statements electronically. ...
Forum Discussion
ice2fire wrote:
Well, I did a survey around Tucson, and it appears all the major banks now have monthly fees for even a simple chequing account. However, the Credit Unions don't.
Well talking to the Credit Unions was negative. Since we don't have USA SSN's they would not take us. We found that US Bank have accounts for over 65'ers that are free. We went to a Branch here. They would accept an ITIN number instead of a SSN. I did have an ITIN once, but not used for 20 years. The IRS, in 2016, are going to delete all ITINs not being used. To get mine resurrected would be a pain, and then I'd have to submit a tax form every year to keep the ITIN alive. This meaning I'd have to buy some property or stock or EFT that paid me a dividend. Not worth it. I investigated TD Bank, the USA branch of TD Canada Trust. They have a fee less account. Trouble is, they would only issue a DEBIT card to me. If my wife wanted one (which she needs), we'd have to go to a Bank in Chazy, NY, 8 hours extra driving on the way home !! Also a bit wary of having a Visa card from such a small and far away (from Tucson) USA bank.
We decided to stick with our WellsFargo DEBIT VISA cards and pay the new monthly fee ! Not too bad, as we'd avoid 4 months fee from having over $1,500 balance in the account. And using online statements makes it cheaper still.
A pain to do the research, but we now think ourselves fortunate !
