After living here for a long time, do you tell your American bank accounts your new address in Japan?
I think I was told a while ago that this is not a good idea, and it prompts the banks to close your accounts.
What happens when a bank mails you a new card to your American address? (since you can’t physically get it) You don’t tell them you are living in Japan right? What happens if you do tell them you live in Japan?
Do you still use your American address (when in Japan) if family members still live there? and then have family members send you photos of it? Or can they mail the cards to your Japanese address?
What if family members don’t live there anymore, what do you do to keep your American credit cards and bank accounts connected with an American address?
Any information shared would be great
Thanks
5 comments
You should have someone forward your cards to you JP address. You can continue using them no problem. I’ve been using mine forever. And now that virtual cards exist, I don’t even need a physical card anymore.
You should really let your bank know that you live in Japan now. Give them your address. If you don’t, you run the risk of your bank freezing your card.
Credit card companies are usually much more okay with it, as the use of credit doesn’t expose them to any international income/bank account reporting requirements. Banks, on the other hand, are far more likely to have a problem with it due to possible reporting issues.
I’ve got credit cards with Chase, and they know about my foreign address with no problems. I haven’t changed the address on my CapitalOne or Bank of America cards, but that’s more for the convenience of keeping some cards that have US billing addresses (useful for purchases within the US).
I was just able to open a CapitalOne 360 checking account, and while they do require you to have a functional US mailing address and a SSN, nothing I saw indicated a requirement to be a US _resident_; they only asked if a) I was a US citizen or a US tax person (basically, do I have a SSN/TIN), and if this account would be subject to FATCA reporting (which is a strange question, since AFAIK, FATCA only requires _foreign_ banks to report to the US).
I use my relative’s address in the US for credit cards, bank (Citibank) has my Japanese one. All correspondence can be done online, so the only thing is getting new credit cards.
I either wait to pick it up next trip, or I called Chase one time and told them I was in Japan and lost the card. They sent a new one to me expedited for free (maybe waited 3 days?) at the address I gave them.
Unlike Japan, you don’t need to be a resident of the US to have a bank account. My Chinese partner lives in Japan and opened a Citibank account on vacation in the US. Technically any bank can do this, but only a few of the big ones do.
I changed my address for my US bank account to my Japanese address after I got PR. It hasn’t made much difference. I don’t use that account much but I still need it for occasional payments in the US.
I have both US bank and CC and immediately changed address to Japan. No issue at all. Not sure if rules changed. They even send me important notification on my current address. And called few times using Skype.