How to Get ITIN to Get a Credit Card

Today we’re going to be talking about can you use an ITIN to get a credit card.

Hey, everyone, this is Sina Bonabi from EIN Express. I’m an IRS Certifying Acceptance Agent, and I’ve been both trained and authorized by the IRS to help non-U.S. citizens all over the world, just like you, to successfully get their EIN and their ITINs for them.

We’ve helped over 2,240 non-U.S. citizens to successfully get their EIN and their ITINs, and we’d love to help you be able to get yours too.

Today we’re going to be addressing the question can you use an ITIN to get a credit card? This is a great question. I get it a lot. First let’s, again, let’s put it into two parts. There’s personal credit cards and there’s business.

 

Applying For a Personal Credit Card

Let’s just start with personal credit cards first. This answer or this part of the answer depends solely on the bank or the credit card company. They all have different requirements.

So if you have an ITIN and you want to get a personal credit card, you really do have to contact the bank or the credit card company that you’re trying to get the credit card with and see if they’ll accept it. Because some of them do and they have additional requirements on top of having the ITIN that you have to provide them in order to get the credit card and then some that don’t accept the ITIN at all.

So it really does depend. For the personal credit card, if you have an ITIN you still have to contact the bank or the credit card company that you want to get a credit card with, a personal one, and see if they first accept the ITIN.

And then, two, if they do accept the ITIN, what additional requirements do they require to provide. Like proof of residential address or et cetera.

They all have different requirements so you really need to contact them and get the information. But it can be done. It just depends on which one you’re trying to get it with.

 

Applying For a Business Credit Card

And then on the other side of this is business credit cards. Now from my knowledge, because we also have a banking service and I’ve been in this for awhile.

From my knowledge, if you are a foreign entrepreneur, let’s say you have an LLC registered in the U.S., but you’re a non-resident alien and you live outside the U.S. and you’re trying to get a business credit card for your business.

First off, from what I know, they only accept the SSN for for business credit cards. From what I know, yeah, they don’t accept the ITIN. And then second, in addition to the SSN, they also request that you provide proof of residential address in the United States.

 

Requirements for Business Credit Card

Those are the two things that most foreign entrepreneurs run into when they’re trying to get business credit cards for their businesses. Because for the business credit cards, they only accept SSN, not ITIN.

And so, that’s one already major issue right there where even if you had the ITIN, it won’t even matter because they won’t accept it.

Second is that proof of residential address to be able to get the business credit card. I’ll give you an example. E-commerce drop shippers. This is this big boom going on right now. They’re running into that problem where not only do they not have the social, but they don’t have proof of residential address here where you know they can use that to help get the credit card, the business credit card.

Because they operate from overseas, the company’s just registered here but there’s no physical address so or residence. That’s a common thing with that.

Just to recap, if you have an ITIN and you want to get a personal credit card, it can be done. It just depends on which bank or credit card company you’re trying to get that personal credit card with. You have to contact them and see if they first accept the ITIN to get a personal credit card.

And if they do, what other additional requirements, if any, do they need from you to provide them so you can get the personal credit card. And then second, the business credit card. Unless you have a SSN or proof of residential address, you’re more likely than not going to be able to use an ITIN to get a business credit card. And that’s from my knowledge.

Now banking constantly changes or credit card rules constantly change. This could change in the future possibly. But from what I know right now, no, that’s not going to happen.

 

What To Do Next

I hope this answer and this response shed some light on this for everyone. I hope it cleared up some issues that people were having in terms of confusion about what can be done or what can’t be done.

And if you have any questions, just go ahead and comment below. And then if you’re ready to get your EIN, your ITIN, go ahead and click here to start your application. Thank you.