# US Credit Cards - open or close?



## v15ben (Feb 19, 2014)

Hi folks,

My wife in the US applying for a spouse visa currently has 2 US credit cards, one Bank of America and one Capital One.

The Capital One card is the Quicksilver - one of the better ones to use abroad I've been told, so she'll use that in the UK.

Is it worth keeping the BoA card open if she won't be using it? Or should she just close it? Are there any tax implications/issues from having an open but unused credit card back in the US?


----------



## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

It's probably not a bad idea to keep at least one US credit card open. It really doesn't matter if you don't use it for long periods of time. Opinions vary as to whether or not you need to keep a US billing address to go with the card. I know I just changed my billing address to my European address when I moved and have continued to change address as I moved around Europe.

There are some vendors who will limit your selection of goods according to your credit card billing address. (Just found out this is the case with Google Play, for example.) This can be a PITA when dealing with certain categories of purchases - like films. (My billing address is in France, so I only have access to the French dubbed versions of films in Google Play.) A few vendors in the US won't sell to anyone with a non-US billing address - but that's getting rarer all the time.

There aren't really any tax implications - other than perhaps getting charged VAT rather than sales tax on purchases for items being shipped to your billing address or electronic files (i.e. e-books, game or audio downloads, etc.).

If she chooses to try to maintain a US billing address, the issue after a while becomes that of maintaining it. It does become a bit inconvenient for friends or family to continue to receive bills for a third party (i.e. having to put another name on the mail box, etc.) - especially 10 or 12 years after the move.
Cheers,
Bev


----------



## BBCWatcher (Dec 28, 2012)

Assuming they're both no annual fee credit cards, I'd keep them both open. If that BofA credit card is not their Travel Rewards credit card -- the "chip and signature" one with no annual fee and no foreign transaction fees -- then I'd ask BofA to switch over to that particular card (or something better if it exists).

There are two reasons to keep two credit cards open. One is that if for some reason you lose one card (or one card doesn't work at a particular merchant) you still have a backup. That might happen if, for example, the card issuer sends you a replacement card when the old one expires and you don't get the replacement. Another is that if you close a credit card account you're likely to lower your U.S. credit score a bit.


----------



## DavidMcKeegan (Aug 27, 2012)

I agree with the above, it definitely should not be a problem to keep those US credit cards open. I know I personally have US cards, and use them for everything. I have found them convenient much more often that I have trouble with them! 

Good luck!


----------



## v15ben (Feb 19, 2014)

Thanks for the advice here everyone.
May as well keep the card open for the reasons you've suggested


----------

