Credit Cards when living onboard

[Heg]

How do you folks with No Fixed Address manage with credit cards?
We still have an Australian address, ( house is rented) but that may change in the next year or two .
We have managed to get updated cards for ones recently expired sent to an address in NZ ( where we are currently cruising) but what happens when we are in the situation of having No fixed abode? Will the CC companies demand that we hand our cards back? How do we keep a billing address?
Love some advice please
Thanks

[sailorboy1]

Since I moved aboard I've changed addresses 4 times including with the credit card company, and once it was just a mail box center. They don't care where I say I am and I don't get any paper statement from them anyway as I do it all online. If I need a replacement card I just call them and tell them where to send it (a marina etc.)

[Heg]

But was this all within the USA?
Our issue is that our cards are currently in AU dollars. We are now in NZ and will shortly be heading up to Tonga and Fiji....
Do your CC company not require a 'billing ' address?

[Paul L]

I don't know about Aussie credit card companies,but all US ones will require a billing address. We use a mailing service.
Make sure you get a credit card that does not charge foreign transaction fees.

[SFS]

Your billing address can be any but address to which they send a bill (assuming you don't go paperless). It doesn't have to be where you live. Give them a friend's address and call it your office. Or use a mail forwarding service and give them that address.

[Heg]

Originally Posted by Paul L

I don't know about Aussie credit card companies,but all US ones will require a billing address. We use a mailing service.
Make sure you get a credit card that does not charge foreign transaction fees.

So this is where I get confused - which address do you use as a billing address?
Or is your billing address the mailing service address that you mentioned? I have no idea what a mailing service is..

[Heg]

Originally Posted by SFS

Your billing address can be any but address to which they send a bill (assuming you don't go paperless). It doesn't have to be where you live. Give them a friend's address and call it your office. Or use a mail forwarding service and give them that address.

Thanks. I'll try that. I assumed we had to have a billing address in the same country as the currency of the credit card

[sailorboy1]

The credit card company of cares that you use your card, pay your bill, and that they collect fees! They don’t care where you are.

As mentioned if you are going to a lot of different countries look into a foreign exchange fee free card. Even if you pa a fee it may be worth it in total card costs. I use a cash back rewards card and use it on almost everything. I generally save/make $50-100/mo on it in cast back,but in exchange fees it sometimes costs me 1% (not a budget breaker)

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Heg

How do you folks with No Fixed Address manage with credit cards?
We still have an Australian address, ( house is rented) but that may change in the next year or two .
We have managed to get updated cards for ones recently expired sent to an address in NZ ( where we are currently cruising) but what happens when we are in the situation of having No fixed abode? Will the CC companies demand that we hand our cards back? How do we keep a billing address?
Love some advice please
Thanks

Hi, Heg,

I can't help you because I don't have the details, but Sapient Sue can. Send her a PM. She is an Australian citizen, with both British and Australian passports, and she and her husband have an Australian mail forwarder with whom they are quite content.

Ann

[danielamartindm]

You can always give them a P.O. Box physical address, but with online billing and online payment of your bills, I don't see how the matter would even come up?

[valhalla360]

Obviously Australia may throw a couple wrinkles into the mix but I would be shocked if they didn't want an address and they probably expect it to be in Australia.

Beyond having an address, they aren't going to come out and verify that you actually spend the bulk of your time living at the address, so it just has to be a real address where if they send something, you know who is going to get hold of it and if really necessary, they can forward it to you.

In the USA, there are mail forwarding services or we just use my sister's address.

Payments and statements can all be done electronically and as others have suggested, you may want to look into foreign transaction fees if you will spend most of your time outside of Australia.

[IslandHopper]

In Australia.....

I have not received a CC bill in the mail for some years now, gone paperless..

As far as a 'billing' address goes, it's the same as my Po Box address even though no CC statements actually go there, there is no residential address at all on my VISA or AMEX cards just my Po Box address...

When overseas i just go on to the respective CC websites and let them know my movements, all good, never had a problem....

All CC statements are received through email

[Suijin]

Here's a mailing service or "mail agent". In the US, they give you an address which you use as your own. When mail arrives they scan the front and send you a notice that you've received mail. They have a web interface where you can look at your received mail and choose to have it shredded, opened and scanned and sent to you electronically, or forwarded to another mailing address. For cruisers without a fixed address it's a godsend. And it's not all that expensive, @ $12/month plus moderate fees for forwarding mail when requested.

https://www.sbimailservice.com

My billing address for pretty much everything (including credit cards) is the mail agent.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

In Australia.....

I have not received a CC bill in the mail for some years now, gone paperless..

As far as a 'billing' address goes, it's the same as my Po Box address even though no CC statements actually go there, there is no residential address at all on my VISA or AMEX cards just my Po Box address...

When overseas i just go on to the respective CC websites and let them know my movements, all good, never had a problem....

All CC statements are received through email

So in US terms your billing address is your PO Box. Doesn't matter that you actually get email statements only. Without the billing address, you could not have the card in the US.

[Zven]

Originally Posted by Suijin

Here's a mailing service or "mail agent". In the US, they give you an address which you use as your own. When mail arrives they scan the front and send you a notice that you've received mail. They have a web interface where you can look at your received mail and choose to have it shredded, opened and scanned and sent to you electronically, or forwarded to another mailing address. For cruisers without a fixed address it's a godsend. And it's not all that expensive, @ $12/month plus moderate fees for forwarding mail when requested.

https://www.sbimailservice.com

My billing address for pretty much everything (including credit cards) is the mail agent.

I am using a mail agent like this, but in Singapore. Very useful.
Previously i used one in the UK.
Happy to provide details by PM if anyone is interested.