Posts by Charles Ramos7

Amex and Diners Club play by their own rules, whereas banks decide on their own Visa and Mastercard issuance, making them much easier to snag.

I remember seeing a bobtail truck parked outside my house in Chicago once. It looked like it was missing half its gear, just sitting there looking a bit lost. kaže:
What if someone lives here in the States but works remotely for an international firm? Would they get paid into a foreign account or just their local one?
American is a bit more complicated, but let's say—would this even be allowed in the country where the company is based? Like, if the employer deposits the money into an account in that country, the person pays their taxes there, but then tries to withdraw it using a card from an account back in the States (or maybe somehow links it to an American card, though I'm not sure if that's even possible)?
The thing that worries me about using a foreign account is whether I'd end up losing my resident status over there.To be honest, I don't know the first thing about finance. 🙂

That’s exactly why they call it a non-resident account. 😉 Sure, sending money like that—to an overseas firm via an international account—is definitely doable. I remember trying something similar with a vendor in Chicago once; it went through without any drama.

It used to be way simpler. Back then, you’d just grab your tax ID from the Canadian tax authorities and take it to the bank along with your ID—easy as pie. 😁

Nowadays, if you ask me, the best move is to open an account somewhere just across the border. That way, you can hit an ATM whenever you need cash without getting eaten alive by fees.

In Canada, depending on what kind of perks you want, I think you're looking at monthly fees starting around $1.75 and up.

Amy Myers65 said:Don't be lazy,
I shot an inquiry over to John at JPMorgan Chase last night and they got back to me pretty fast:

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 12:21 AM
name: David
subject: Mortgage loan
message:
To whom it may concern,
I'm guessing you guys are getting flooded with messages from all over the US :-)
Can you send over some info regarding terms and rates for mortgage loans for young people here in America?
Thanks

-----Original Message-----
From: Services [mailto:Services@jpmchase.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2011 7:55 AM
Subject: RE: Mortgage loan

Dear David,
Thank you for your inquiry regarding our lending options. We wanted to inform you that, based on current Bank of America policy, we are currently only approving bridge loans (unsecured loans) for non-residents.

Should we begin approving mortgage loans for non-residents in the future, we will be happy to notify you via a brief message.
Best regards
RK

🤦

A line of credit isn't just some random loan; it's actually a Lombard loan. ☕

In Canada, you have to get a tax ID—which I assume is pretty much the standard across most of the European Union—so it’s pretty obvious the IRS could flag any payment you make.

I get that, but if you’re doing something illegal in the first place, why on earth would you even touch a bank account? You’d just hand him the cash; nobody’s going to risk a paper trail by sending money to an overseas account.

I’m not even sure if that’s legal, but honestly, I can't think of a single good reason why anyone would bother doing it anyway.🤔

Henry Edwards33 said:On income 😉

What do you mean, "under the table" income? 😕

If you're working abroad, you'll have a local bank account and pay taxes just like any other resident there. But if you transfer that money back to the US, you report it so you actually have proof that the funds were legally brought into the country.

Daniel Garcia70 said:I already posted this thread under the Housing section, but since it relates to this topic too, I am posting it here as well...

Hello,
I have a situation where I need some help.
I am 28. I have a wife and a child. We are currently living in a larger tourist city in the US. Due to a series of circumstances, we are living in a rental unit that was only supposed to be for three months, just until my wife gets used to the baby and settles in. I only moved here because my landlord gave me notice a few days before the baby was born...
Anyway, we started looking for a home to buy. In the market for apartments and houses, but nothing costs less than $400 per square foot, even outside the city limits... and both our parents live right in the city center...
Our maximum budget is $250,000 because anything more would destroy us with a mortgage...
One day, we found a house right in the city center (only a few hundred yards from both my parents and my wife's parents).
The house is about 650 square feet and was listed at $175,000, but after negotiating, they dropped it to $155,000. It would require some money for renovations...
After talking it over with my wife, we agreed the house might not be ideal for living in. However, since I already have a steady job working with my parents—which involves short-term vacation rentals—we can fill at least ten other houses and rentals in the neighborhood during the summer season...

My thinking would be to buy the house with a $155,000 loan (monthly payment of $950) over 30 years, but the repayment would work like this:

1. My parents have promised they can give us $30,000 from every season.
2. From renting out this specific house, we could save $30,000 by the end of the season.
3. From my own job, I could save $15,000.

That is $75,000 by the end of September. So, I would have paid off half the loan in less than a year.

In the winter, the apartments can be rented to students for about $600 a month each. Two units at 325 square feet each... so $1,200 monthly.

Since I have to move out of the rental unit anyway, I would take on roommates. A two-bedroom apartment goes for maybe $900...

The situation by the end of September (when I planned to move from the rental) would look like this:
- The mortgage payment would be cut in half, down to $475/month.
- The rent for the place I live in is about $900...
- The difference is roughly $150....

The mortgage and the roommates would be paid for entirely by the house itself. My family and I would live comfortably off my salary, which wouldn't be burdened by the debt...

Most importantly, THE LOAN WOULD BE PAID OFF WITHIN 3 YEARS AT THE LATEST.

The problem is my wife. She says we shouldn't buy something when we don't technically have a permanent roof over our heads yet. She would rather wait until things stabilize (in my opinion, there is no sense waiting a year "for things to stabilize" only to pay $300,000 for 500 square feet)...

Anyway, I am looking for your help just to try and see things more objectively. I have gotten really excited about this house, so I don't know if I am being objective enough or if I am being completely subjective...

WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK ABOUT ALL THIS...?

I’m lost here. If the house isn't fit to live in, why on earth would it bring in $10,000 a year? 🤔 And why sell it at half its market value? 😕

Plus, like I mentioned before, paying off the mortgage early would just result in a massive loss...

Realistically, investing in property with a 5-7 year turnaround is a great move, but...🤷

The shop gets paid instantly, but they're also footing the bill for credit card processing fees, so there’s no discount for using a card.

I'm not sure about the other part, but usually, you're looking at a wait of about 15 days.

I’ve already mentioned this in another thread, but it’s all pretty subjective. Which card works better really depends on things like which bank issued it or even which state you're in. Honestly, just pick whichever one you prefer. 😉

James Hayes6 said:The bank always wins while the customer just stays stuck in debt... if you ask me, that's just how the whole credit card game works.

Just because you haven't figured out how to use them doesn't mean the cards themselves are bad.

says:
I actually just hopped on a chat with their support team. 😁
The representative told me they only issue cards if you have a fixed-term CD. 👋 😁

JPMorgan Chase? How much do you have to lock up? Any limits?

That was my first time using one, and I think my limit was stuck around $1,100. It wasn't really working for me because it was tied to my foreign currency account, so whenever I bought something locally, I was getting hit by the exchange rate. I eventually returned it, opened a standard checking account instead (even though that's not where my main paycheck goes), and then grabbed another card that’s actually linked to my checking. I'm not entirely sure what my total limit is now, but the daily cap is $2000. Honestly, I have much larger CDs set up now than I used to, though at this point, having easy access to my cash matters more to me than the actual amount I have locked away.

You might want to check with JPMorgan Chase; I think someone mentioned on the forum that they set a default of 🤷

darkmaker94 said:I’m looking to pick up a credit card—either a Mastercard or a Visa charge card—but I’m currently unemployed since I'm still a student. Can anyone confirm if it's actually possible to get one from a bank just by using a CD as collateral?
I'm mainly looking at Chase or JPMorgan Chase. I tried emailing the first one, but their response was super vague. 🙄

Basically, I'd be looking to put something like 4-$1667 into a 2-year CD, and I want to know if I can secure one of those two cards with a limit matching that amount (or maybe a bit less).
If anyone here actually has a card set up this way, I'd love to know which bank and which card you're using. 🙂

I have a Chase Mastercard (even though they offered me any card they had), but I don't think it's an automatic thing where you just open a CD and the card pops out—at least not at Chase. It seems more about your track record. I kept about $2,000–$3,000 sitting in my checking account for a couple of years without locking it away, and based on that history, they reached out and offered me a card.

darkmaker94 said:I know plenty of people who used them without any issues at all:

1.
2.
...

So what's the big deal now? 😁

Honestly, there isn't a single logical reason why our Visa Electron wouldn't work in the USA.

Generally speaking, it’s not always about the card or the country itself; sometimes, certain merchants just won't accept it for reasons nobody can quite explain—likely depending on which bank they partner with. I remember being in Canada back before they implemented highway vignettes, and at one toll booth, my card worked perfectly, but at the very next one, it was rejected.
I don't think you can make broad generalizations about whether a card works in a specific country. Every merchant and every individual card tells its own story.

electricsailor13 said:Someone mentioned this earlier, and I want to expand upon a similar idea:

1. We must establish a minimum monthly amount required for a dignified life. This should be the baseline pension that the government guarantees and pays out to every retiree, regardless of whether they worked as a janitor or a cabinet minister, or if they contributed for one year or forty.

2. Since most retirees typically own some form of real estate—though we really ought to calculate exactly how many there are—I believe having $667 per month would be sufficient for a decent life. If that isn't enough, they can sell a larger property to buy a smaller apartment, or leave their home to the state via a will. In exchange, the government would build dedicated senior living communities providing housing, food, and medical care. If they don't own property, their children should take them in. If they have no children, or if their children refuse to help, then the state will step in with those aforementioned senior homes. However, any child who refuses to care for their parents should be financially penalized, footing 50% of the costs for that parent's stay in such a facility.

3. For those still in the workforce: if you have extra, save it in banks, mutual funds, gold, precious stones, or even under your mattress. The more you save, the easier your retirement will be. Those who have nothing will simply live hand-to-mouth until they reach retirement age, at which point we will move them into those designated homes.

4. Retirees whose benefits exceed the minimum established in point 1 should have their pensions adjusted down to that amount. That surplus should be reinvested directly into building the senior homes mentioned in point 2.

5. For those receiving disability benefits, we must strictly verify the validity of those disabilities. If the disability is legitimate according to the initial assessment, fine; if not, the benefit must be adjusted. Furthermore, if anyone caught working while collecting a disability pension is discovered, their benefits should be terminated immediately, and they should be declared fit for work with no right to appeal for the following five years!

I believe this is fundamentally fair. Someone who earned well throughout their life will have bought a home or saved money; someone who didn't will live modestly and rely on social safety nets, but if they make it to retirement, they will be secure until death. Look, it is an irrefutable fact that not everyone can be wealthy—that's just utopia talking. These fake veterans and the fraudsters collecting disability checks while working would call this "cruel," but looking at the baseline in point 1 and the reality of point 3, I am willing to bet my life that both my parents and I will be subject to this exact same process in 30 or 40 years.

I’d call what you’re suggesting social welfare rather than a pension system. Ideally, pensions should be fully privatized—sort of like how I think they handle things in Chile. You’d know exactly how much you’ve put in over 40 years and what your payout looks like, much like a standard life insurance policy. From what I understand, that's the setup in the United Kingdom; once you retire, you can either take an annuity or just withdraw your entire own nest egg. Making that transition here would be a nightmare, but it’s the only fair way to do it. Everything else feels like a scam.
Regardless of the pension issue, point number two seems reasonable (trading an apartment to the state in exchange for lifetime assisted living), provided the government shares some of the risk. If my place covers ten years of care and I pass away early, the state wins. But they also need to shoulder the risk if I end up needing care for fifteen years instead.

Even though they aren't really pushing it, Chase is running a promotion on their Mastercard where they waive the application and annual fees for the first year, just in case anyone could use it.

Well, go right ahead then. I honestly don't see why you're even bothering to ask 🙂

If I recall correctly, someone on this board mentioned receiving an international wire transfer—I can't remember if it was from Forex or something else—and the bank just called them up to say they’d be moving it straight into their US checking account.

That’s a different story altogether. I think we touched on this before—it probably ought to go straight into a foreign currency account.