Job Discussion Forums

Sigmuu · Joined: 04 May 2003 Posts: 25

Greetings:
I am living and teaching in Saudi Arabia and therefore because I have a foreign address, no Credit Card in Canada will issue me a Credit Card. However, I have been living in the Kingdom for only 2 years so no Saudi bank will issue me a card because they say that I must live here at least 3 years to receive a credit from them. Next summer, I plan to return to Canada from the KSA and having a credit card, any credit card, would make things easier for booking hotels and/or renting a car and so on. I have checked the Internet but some of the so-called �International Credit Cards� advertised on it look down right bogus. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

You should be able to get a debit card. Works like a credit card but you have to deposit money in the bank and the card expenditure is debitted from your balance. Shop around the Saudi banks.

But you can live without a credit card !

Well, maybe not in North America.

shirley · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 45 Location: Italy

A debit card will not be considered as a credit card for renting a car; but you can obtain a secured credit card by paying 500 or a 1,000 to a credit card company and then receiving that amount in "credit". It's not a good investment for your money, but it is probably the only way you can get a card since you have a Saudi address. Check out the American banks online to find a credit card company that will offer you one.

Pushok · Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Posts: 49

I've been in KSA for 1 year exactly and I got a visa card about 1 month ago from the Saudi British Bank (Gold card with 18,000SAR credit on it). I was very surprised because my credit rating is not the best from my student days in England. It seems to me that the criteria for selection here is very different from the UK. I'm just hypothesizing, but I think that they are more intersted in your profession and contract length than your history.

I guess what I'm trying to say is; I don't know exactly why I got it, but I got a credit card no problem.

Cleopatra · Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2003 6:58 am Post subject:

Where I workedin KSA we regularly had people coming around trying to get us to sign up to their credit card programmes. I had a friend who got one after only a year in KSA, though he did have to get a Saudi friend to 'sponser' him.

Mark100 · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 441

National Commercial Bank has an advance card which functions as a credit card.You just deposit some money in the account and then you can use it as a credit card.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Be careful with credit cards issued in Saudi Arabia. When you leave it is normal procedure for your employer to askfor a "clearance letter" from your bank. If you have a bank loan or a credit card you could have problems. When I left my last employer the Arab National Bank would only give me a clearance letter after I dposited 20,000 riyals to cover any last-minute use of my V**a Card ! I had dreadful problems then getting my 20,000 riyals out of the bank.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be !