Wednesday, January 28, 2009

No-limit Offshore Credit Card

No-limit Offshore Credit Cards


"No limit credit cards exist in the offshore world, however, they are perhaps a bit different than the quasi-no-limit cards available in the onshore world.



No-limit Credit Cards



Perhaps the most famous "no limit" credit card I know of is the American Express Black Card. It is also entirely possible that Visa and MasterCard offer some very high limit credit cards that I'm just not familiar with since I don't run in those circles :)


The Amex black card, I imagine is only theoretically unlimited. I'm sure there is some theoretical or practical upper bound at which point the card won't work. Could you buy a house with it? Certainly. A yacht? Depending on the size, maybe. A mansion, lear jet or small country? Probably not.



Truly No-Limit Offshore "Credit Cards"


Offshore cards are differentiated from their onshore cousins in that most of them are actually debit cards and prepaid credit cards. This in theory gives them the potential to be "unlimited" in that the issuing company isn't taking on unknown credit risk. That said, many of the debit and prepaid cards still have limits.



ATM Withdrawal Limits



Bank Machine or Automatic Teller Machine withdrawal limits I believe are set by the bank, the network, and the bank machine in question. While some of the more high limit offshore credit cards have daily ATM withdrawal limits of 10,000 pounds, I don't know of any that have "unlimited" daily cash withdrawals. While the amount of risk on a prepaid credit card is limited to the amount of money the depositor has loaded onto his or her card, at some point possessing the card could be dangerous as it puts the holder of the card at some risk of abduction or generally villany knowing the carrier can access that much cash readily without raising suspicion or questions.



Offshore Credit Card Spending Limits



While many of the high roller offshore cards offer spending limits around $30,000/day, there is also a MasterCard offered through a bank in Macedonia which is truly "unlimited" when it comes to spending limits.


The user can use his or her card to buy an unlimited amount of products from vendors whereever MasterCard is accepted. The card, however, is in actuality a debit card, so the card is in reality limited by what the client has in his or her offshore banking account.



Load Limits of Offshore Credit Cards



While traditional credit card user never think about "load limits", in the offshore world where "credit card" is in reality a misnomer, the offshore credit card is usually prepaid or the card is a debit card.


A debit card can usually access any and all monies carried in the offshore account, while a prepaid card is usually manually loaded by the client (online usually) by moving money from an offshore account to the card in question.


While a prepaid card takes extra managment and work, it functions like a credit card for the purposes of car rentals etc and allows the user to limit his or her risk of theft or loss via the card.


In most cases the users of high limit cards is limited to 60,000USD per month. In other cases, as in the case with certain highlimit platinum and gold cards, there truly is no load limit. The off shore credit card will hold as much money as the user wishes to load onto it at any given time.



So Where Do I get a No-Limit Credit Card



There are probably several vendors that offer something similar. My company offers a no spending limit offshore MasterCard with no load limits. This allows someone to spend as many as millions of dollars on their card if that is what they need. However, a vast majority of our customers opt for a high roller platinum card with vastly more benefits, a slightly lower spending limit, higher atm withdrawal limits and lower atm credit card withdrawal fees

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Offshore Credit Card Security Deposit

Offshore Credit Card Security Deposit

One of the things that I glossed over in an earlier post that I wanted to come back to is the idea of putting down a security deposit for your credit card. While most patrons that are not familiar with the offshore world will not be too keen to have a deposit to secure their card there are some good reasons for this:

While most cards in the US and parts of EU have credit associated with the card, an offshore credit card is usually either prepaid, or a debit, and no credit check has been attempted or completed on the client.

This makes it possible for a card to be issued to a client where non-existent or dubious credit has been achieved. Since the cards operate on fees, the security deposit merely ensures that the client does not run up fees through queries to the ATM (for example) in excess of funds on deposit.

Sometimes the security deposit will be something nominal or small like like my company's 60 euro security fee...Other times the security fee can be as much as 150% of the money the depositor wishes to withdraw.

Before buying or signing onto an offshore credit card program, the fees and should be taken into account as it will effect the offshore credit cards overall usefulness to the client.

Offshore Credit Card ATM Withdrawal Fees

Offshore Credit Card ATM Fees

One of the main draws of the offshore credit card or offshore debit card is the fact that the depositor is "instantaneously" linked to his or her offshore account through their local automatic teller machine.

How Offshore Credit and Debit Cards Differ from Domestic ATM Cards

While offshore cards differ from their domestic counterparts in some significant ways, they usually bear the same brand distinction and utilize the same international networks. Visa and MasterCard are the two biggest and most visible international credit card brands for both domestic and offshore banks.

The biggest difference is that typically an offshore credit card, in reality, offers you no credit whatsoever. In reality they are often either secured credit cards, prepaid credit cards, or debit cards. I will explain the differences in detail in a later post. Suffice it to say, no credit is actually extended to the card holder.

How Do Offshore Credit Cards Work in Bank Machines?

The cards themselves work virtually identically as far as the user is concerned. And the bank machine itself doesn't really care about where the bank is located. The difference most apparent to the user will be the withdrawal fees.

Withdrawal Fees on ATMs

Because offshore credit cards offer no credit they don't make their money by charging interest. They make their money on fees. Visa or MasterCard and the issuing bank often charge between 2 percent and 5 percent for withdrawals from automatic teller machines. For many would-be offshore banking clients this fee can be a turn off to the concept of holding an offshore account and/or an offshore card.

For others, the savings or peace of mind associated with having an offshore account makes the ATM withdrawal fees "worth it". For smaller withdrawals the fee can be less than the time and expense of executing an offshore bank wire. And, the banking client is often hoping that the transaction is less "attention getting" than receiving a large international bank wire.

Other Bank Machine Fees Associated with Your Offshore Card

In addition to withdrawal fees, there are also fees associated with checking balances. These fees are roughly equivalent to any "out of network" bank machine charge you would see for competing domestic banks, and the infrequency of needin to do balance inquires -- especially with online account access -- makes these less burdensome for most offshore bank account clients.



Offshore Credit Cards - The Truth

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