Credit Cards for Foreigners and Expats: How to Get One in a New Country

The short answer: yes, a foreigner can get a credit card — in the country rulebooks we have read, we have found no rule against it. What stops most newcomers is that their credit history stays at home, so the new country's lenders see an empty file. The order that works almost everywhere is: keep a home-country card for the first months, open a local account (in the EU, a basic account is a legal right), then get a first local card through one of four routes — your card company's international transfer service, a lender that reads foreign credit data, the bank that already holds your salary, or a secured or credit-builder product.

This guide is the map. The details change sharply by country, so each step below links to the country guide where the rules are spelled out from the regulator's own text.

Why your score does not come with you

Credit scores feel personal, but they are built from national registers: Buró de Crédito and Círculo de Crédito in Mexico, CIRBE at the Banco de España, SCHUFA in Germany, BKR in the Netherlands, the US bureaux and so on. A lender in a new country is generally obliged to assess whether you can repay before it lends, and the register it consults has never heard of you. Twenty years of perfect repayments at home produces the same result there as no history at all.

That is not a judgement about you, and it is not usually a rule against foreigners. It is missing data. Everything that works below is a way of supplying that data from somewhere else. The mechanism is set out in full, with the Spanish and Mexican statutes, in why your credit history stops at the border.

Step 1: keep a card from home running

The first weeks are the easiest to plan for, because you already have cards. A credit card from your home country works abroad wherever its network is accepted, keeps your home credit file active, and needs no new application.

Three things decide whether it is a sensible bridge:

• The foreign transaction fee. Every purchase in your new currency is converted. If your issuer adds a percentage on top of the network rate, you pay it on rent deposits, groceries and everything else. Cards with no foreign transaction fees explains what 0% does and does not cover.
• Dynamic currency conversion. Terminals and websites will offer to charge you in your home currency. Decline and pay in the local currency; in the EU, Regulation (EU) 2019/518 requires the conversion charge to be shown as a mark-up over the European Central Bank's reference rate before you confirm, which tells you how much the "convenience" costs. Why you should always say no to DCC has the worked numbers.
• Your bank's view of a foreign address. Some issuers restrict or close accounts once you live abroad. Ask before you move, not after the statement address changes.

Carry a second card on a different issuer as well. Fraud blocks on a new pattern of foreign spending are common, and why cards get declined abroad explains what triggers them and what actually fixes them.

Step 2: open a local account first

Almost every route to a local credit card runs through a local current account. It gives you a local IBAN or account number for salary and rent, lets you pay by the domestic methods people actually use, and gives a bank months of evidence about your income — the very thing a first application needs.

In the EU this step is protected by law. Directive 2014/92/EU gives consumers legally resident in the Union a right to a payment account with basic features, which is why a refusal "because you are foreign" is usually a branch habit rather than the law. Your legal right to a bank account in the EU sets out the entitlement and the narrow grounds for refusal.

The local account also matters because payments differ by country. In Poland, BLIK inside a banking app is how much of the country pays online; in Portugal, the domestic Multibanco network has its own rules. A foreign card can be accepted almost everywhere and still miss the method the landlord or utility expects.

Step 3: the four routes to a first local credit card

Route 1: your card company's international transfer

The only widely used route that carries an existing relationship across a border is a card company's own transfer service, and American Express runs the best-documented one. Its US moving-abroad page, read on 7 November 2026, sets the conditions plainly: "your existing Card must be issued by American Express, you must be the primary Cardholder, and have held the Card for at least 3 months", and the account "must be open and in good standing". Corporate Cards and Amex-branded cards issued by other banks are excluded.

For a move to the United States, the same page lists what to have ready: your Amex account number, a US home address, phone number and bank account, passport details, employment details, and a US-issued Social Security Number or Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. It states that the process "takes 7-10 working days", that you may only apply for one card in the US at first, and that "If you have a credit file in the United States, it will be taken into account". Amex runs equivalent country pages for destinations such as Canada, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong; the rules differ by destination, so read the page for the country you are moving to.

The practical lesson: if you hold an Amex issued by American Express itself and you might move, keep it open and in good standing before you go. It is the cheapest head start available.

Route 2: a lender that reads your foreign credit report

Some lenders accept translated foreign credit data. Nova Credit describes its Credit Passport as a way to "translate an international credit report" into a local-equivalent score, tradelines and risk measures for the lender, after the applicant grants access to their international credit data (novacredit.com, read 7 November 2026). It is a lender-side tool: it only helps if the specific bank or card company you apply to has integrated it, and only if your home bureau is one Nova Credit can reach. Check the lender's application page for it rather than assuming.

Route 3: the bank that already pays you

A bank that has watched your salary arrive for several months has evidence no register holds. That is why a first card very often comes from the bank where your current account is, and why switching banks just before applying can set you back. Rules for what counts as acceptable income or residence status are country- and bank-specific — in the Netherlands, for instance, bank cards need a Dutch address and a set net income, and some are closed to temporary residence permit holders. The country guides below record those rules from the source.

Route 4: secured cards and credit-builder products

Where nothing else works, a product designed to create history is the reliable floor. A secured card is backed by your own deposit; a credit-builder instalment plan generates a repayment record without lending you money you did not want. Both report to the local bureaux, which is the whole point. They are slow by design: plan on months of clean reporting before a mainstream card. How to build credit from scratch is the month-by-month plan, written for the US system but useful anywhere the same scoring logic applies.

Country guides

The steps above are the same everywhere; the details are not. Each guide below is built from that country's regulator, central bank and statute text.

International credit cards: advantages and disadvantages

People searching for an "international credit card" usually mean one of two things: a card from home used abroad, or a card marketed as global. Both share the same trade-offs.

Advantages

• Works from day one, with no new application or local paperwork.
• Keeps your home credit file active, which matters if you may move back.
• Brings the consumer protections of the country that issued it, such as chargeback rights through the card scheme.

Disadvantages

• Every purchase is a currency conversion, and any foreign transaction fee repeats on all of them.
• It builds nothing in your new country's credit register, so it does not shorten the wait for local credit.
• Your bank may restrict it once you register a foreign address, and paying the bill can mean a cross-border transfer every month.

The usual answer is both: an international card as the bridge and the backup, local products for everyday life once you have them.

Cutting the conversion cost while you wait

The gap between arriving and holding a local card is mostly a currency problem: income in one currency, rent and shopping in another. A multi-currency account can hold both and convert when you choose. Wise is one: an account and debit card that converts at the mid-market rate with a separate, published fee, and gives local account details in a number of currencies. It is not a credit card, it builds no credit history anywhere, and pricing and availability vary by country — check its own pricing page for yours.

A realistic first-year plan

1. Before you move: confirm your home bank will keep your card open with a foreign address; if you hold an Amex issued by American Express, keep it in good standing for the transfer route.
2. First weeks: use the home card (local currency at the terminal, never DCC) and a second card on another issuer as backup.
3. First month: open a local current account; in the EU, cite the basic-account right if you are refused.
4. Months 1–3: try the transfer route if you qualify, or ask your new bank what it needs for a first card. If neither works, open a secured or credit-builder product so the local file starts.
5. Months 6–12: keep reported balances low and every payment on time; then apply for a mainstream card at the bank that holds your salary.

Credit cards are borrowing: interest, fees and charges apply, and missed payments damage your file in the new country as quickly as at home. This guide is general information, not financial advice, and eligibility is always the lender's decision. Card company and lender pages quoted here were read on 7 November 2026; check the current version for your destination before you apply. If you are moving for remote work rather than a local job, digital nomad finance covers the set-up for living on income from several countries, and a Wise account is one way to hold those currencies side by side.