My ITIN experience.
February 2013- I decided to apply for an ITIN. It was a massive pain in the neck. Every step on the way. Not many people can offer help as nobody knows about it....and it's probably better that way. I was a Student on an F1 visa in the US. I was waiting for a long time for the IRS to get back to me.
May 2013- I'm finally issued an ITIN. Though the waiting game made me very disoriented. I then try my luck with a Discover Student CC and I was denied. So i had just been let down again...and feeling that I had been wasting my time.....Until
June 2013- I called Capital One and asked them if they accept ITIN to which the CSR said emphatically NO. Anyway, I decided to try my luck and applied for a Capital One secured card online. The response was that I should wait a few days. CSR's were unhelpful in telling me my status.
July 2013- I get a letter in the mail from Capital One that in order for them to process my application, they need proof of my SSN/ITIN and proof of address. After sending in the documents, i get a letter a few weeks later that I had been approved for the secured card... So I'm having mixed feelings. On the one hand, i feel excited that I've finally been approved on a card, but on the other hand, theres no real evidence that I can build a credit file with my ITIN and maybe I will just never get to the good stuff.
October 2013- After very healthy and cautious spending patterns, I decide to give Chase a shot. Did a 2BM- Freedom & SP. The webpage responds to call a number which happens to be the fraud dept. (I got nervous at this stage as I had never gotten this far and I'm not a natural BS-artist, so i just wasn't excited about this next part). I call in about the freedom and after some verification questions I'm put on hold....Fingers crossed. Two minutes later the CSR is back on the line. "congratulations, you've been approved with a $1k CL." That was such a sigh of relief. I'm finally reaching the light at the end of the tunnel. I then proceeded to ask the CSR about my SP application. Again he puts me on hold, gets back on the line and approves me with a $5k CL. I finally have seen the fruits of my labor.
February 2014- I have been very prudent. Making sure the statements close with a max of 20% debt to credit ratio. Always paid in full. I did do some heavy spending, but always made sure that everything was in good standing. I now decide to give AMEX a shot. Applied for PRG and SPG. Again, no result after submission, but called in and they told me that I was denied PRG due to young credit age (which was fair enough) however I was approved for the SPG with a $5.5k CL. Cool! I also applied for a Citi AA card but was also denied for young credit age
July 2014- I am no longer living in the US. No resident status or visa at all. I continue monitoring my credit. And thought that with a score around 740, I'm gonna try Ink Plus, United Explorer, IHG and Citi AA (50k bonus). The online response from Chase was to call in for one and to wait a few days for the other. I called chase (fraud dept.) and was approved for all 3 Chase cards 5K, 12k, 8k limits respectively. And Citi approved me online immediately with a $6k limit...
November 2014- Time for some more apps, but haven't worked out what I'm gonna do next. However I did try to apply for the Barclays US airways card. However it seems that they will only accept SSN very strictly.
Side Notes/ FAQ:
Monitoring credit with an ITIN: Most sites will not accept ITIN for credit reports. Annualcreditreport.com will only send you a report in the mail, but you have to call them up to arrange it. When I had my capital one secured, They offered free credit report access which really helped me tons. Credit Sesame/ Credit Karma/ myfico will not accept ITIN. I was even banned from MYFICO forums just for trying to use my ITIN. I use mint.com and credit.com to access my report currently. The credit scores are all FAKO, but its the activity and other info which is useful.
Resident Status: According to an earlier post on the thread, somebody said that when their wife got residency, their ITIN was approved for cards. I'm telling you that this has nothing to do with residency status. Having said that, you will need a US address linked to the ITIN for you credit report and CC applications. However, if you do reside overseas, call the bank and the'll usually be happy to mail the card to your overseas address. However you will always need to maintain a US address for applications/ billing address
The following banks will accept ITIN for CC's: Bofa, Chase, Citi, Discover. The following banks will NOT: USbank, Barclays.
MS: One annoying thing is that Serve/Bluebird and AP will not take ITIN. Google wallet however does accept...So if I was desperate for a threshold, I used it.
Chase fraud: I have a feeling that since I'm applying for cards with ITIN, Chase seems to never approve me online, but to rather call the fraud dept. It seems as though the fraud dept. a much more keen to approving cards than recon is. I've never had to beg, or ask for them to reconsider. As soon as I verify my ID. Bingo.
