US Patriot Act and US Credit Cards

  I am quite embarrassed to say that I overlooked a charge (shoes) I made on one of my US credit cards. It went to collections and I had no way of knowing what the charge was until I spoke with the credit card company's internal collections department. Oops, yes I did make the charge. The bank closed my account. My sis collects my mail and also overlooked it since she knew I was coming to visit and all the phone calls also got overlooked by my brother (who thought it was for shoes).

The woman went on to tell me it was against the US Patriot Act to have a US credit card account with a US address not mine while residing outside of the country. So are we all breaking the law??

I had that credit card waaaaaaaay before the Patriot Act and was living outside of the country when the PA was established!! The woman was quite rude to me and wouldn't let me speak to anyone to complain or clarify... apparently if you don't have an account you aren't a "customer" anymore. She quarreled with me!! She gave me her details and told me to write a letter... she all but gave me a stamp to mail the letter with her sarcasm. After speaking with collections people... I had to call two different numbers and got transferred 3 times and by then I was an emotional wreck and started sobbing. Ah stress relief!! That woman was quite kind. She said that bank has a reputation for bad customer service. She gave me lots of info and said this shouldn't effect my credit rating... it's my longest standing card and I have never been late. I spoke to her manager to praise her customer service. Wow, what is the world coming to?? Businesses being rude and collections being kind? 

So what is the deal about holding US credit cards while reside outside of the country? Too many of us to catch? I know I am not the only one!!

Shoes are bad. 

I'm no expert on the Patriot Act but it sounds like rubbish to me otherwise no-one would ever be able to use their card outside the US.  Besides, if your sister's address is where you'd live when you returned to the US then it is your address.

I know little about the Act either, what I can tell you from experience is that many people who talk to you on the phone don't know what the feck they're talking about, and will tell you anything, and think if they tell you it in a confident manner then you'll believe it.  I have been shocked at some of the things I've heard quoted to customers as "the law" by staff who couldn't really care less.

Yeah that's just ridiculous.  I mean please - there are plenty of people who live outside of the US that have credit cards with US addresses on them.  Ever heard of this new invention called PO boxes??    (that's directed to the lady, not you OO.)  Some people are just freaking crazy with the little amount of power they have.

Please make a formal complaint to the credit card company.

Regardless of what the law is, the woman had no right to speak to you that way.

Thanks for your support. 

glad that you finally found someone to help you out olive...

as for the legality in having a US credit card while not residing in the US- i have heard this before.  i think from my Canadian BIL who used to live in the US.  now- with that said- i still have 3 US credit cards and a bank account and i have no desire to cancel those. 

the patriot act can bite my pasty white expat bum.

it's nothing more than a tool designed by the bush administration to quietly remove our personal freedoms while directing our attention to the smoke & mirrors show in the middle east.

and obviously now, people are taking advantage of its scare tactic qualities in situations that have nothing to do with terrorism.

grr.

i like your attitude Niku2...

i'm like- how does the US govt expect me to pay their Bloody taxes w/o a US bank account? 

i like your attitude Niku2...

i'm like- how does the US govt expect me to pay their Bloody taxes w/o a US bank account? 

oh, don't tell me that...it'll only make me believe in my whack-job conspiracy theories even more! 

BOLLOCKS!

What the PATRIOT act states is that Credit Card companies (and other financial institutions) attempt to collect, validate and maintain current addresses for all those who have accounts with them.  They do not have to be US addresses, but they should be where you actually live.  You are not breaking the law by doing what you are doing, but the Credit Card company is required to attempt to ensure this information is valid.  There is absolutely no law which you are breaking and if anyone would get in trouble it would be the Credit Card agency for not attempting to collect and maintain accurate information.

kitsonk, I also was told that CCs could not be mailed abroad. So as long as they have a US address and the person's current physical address then all is okay?

I think I need to start to do some research.

There is a lot of "scary" talk about terrorism and money laundering by foreigners and foreign institutions.

The only concrete thing that I think applies to me is the part of banks creating their own policies to guard against this i.e., if they said NO person residing abroad can have an account, well that makes sense to me. In good faith, I informed the bank of my new address when I first moved over.

I am glad my instinct was correct and knew the woman was rubbish. 

All I can say is that I used to have my credit card statement mailed over here...then changed it to my parents address but I am sure I could change it back if I wanted to. I receive my bank statements over here AND they even sent me my new debit/credit card to my UK address.

Olive Oyl, sorry you went through that fear crap!

I actually researched the patriot act extensively for my dissertation for my masters degree. I did not research so much the credit card end of it, but I can say that despite it's bad reputation, it did do a lot of good with US government agencies and cleaning up and streamlining their processes.

I did also find that while it's been touted as the worst thing for personal freedom, in reality, personal freedom has been eroded since after WWII, slowly but surely each president has added on their own ways of acquiring information for protection purposes. Bush only did it very openly and without any thought or remorse for the reaction of the american public.

And a funny thing about credit cards - I did the same thing leaving college. I bought somethign at Old navy with a store card, moved out of my dorm and forwarded the mail. Well, that one piece of mail never got forwarded. I caught the company just before it was given up for collections. I paid it and it still mars my credit report. I just checked it again and found they messed up a lot of information b/c i have been using my parents' american address for a lot of information. They said my dad was my spouse - that was scary! I got that fixed, but they thought I applied for a mortgage and I hadn't, so basically they got me mixed up with my parents. Really annoying and goes to show just how inaccurate these credit companies are.