bill_n_opus

As most Canadians know we have problems ordering from the States usually because most e-business sites does not accept Canadian-based credit cards because of the Canadian billing info even if we may have a valid US shipping address.

I'm trying to order from buy.com to take advantage of some good deals, coupons and US rebates only promos but Customer Service tells me "Sorry, you'll have to go to Buy.com Canada"

- Forget that noise!

I know of BorderFree.com but AFAIK they still don't do the coupon thing and they charge a fairly high rate for shipping.

So, anyone have success maintaining a US credit card account while residing in Canada? Any details?

(I figure that I could drive down to Bellingham, WA and possibly open an account in a bank there and do that but it would seem like a hassle. I'm wondering whether anyone's done this online before)

Thanks for any replies and ideas.


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< hither... > dither...

eXcentris

Well, a visa card is a visa card! You don't
have to have a card from a US bank. The problem with us.buy.com is that they only ship to the US. You need a US shipping address. I use my name and my address for billing and my name and my friend's address
as the billing address. Your credit card company will simply do the currency conversion for you on your statement so you
will remit your payment in CDN funds.
That's how I used to do it and it worked fine. That said, visa does have a US card
available in Canada. If you have US funds,
just open a US bank account at your bank and
apply for that visa card. This way you don't
have to deal with currency conversion.

bill_n_opus

I'd love to think it's as as easy as you say but it doesn't seem so. The larger majority of US online retailers do not take Canadian info. Sure, VISA is VISA but not when you're online AFAIK.

So, how exactly do you enter your Canadian billing info? You are aware that buy.com's e-commerce software does not allow for (1)Province (2)Country (3)Postal Code? I emailed customer service and they said that they are not equipped to handle Canadian billing info.

So, do you just "wing" it or what? Back in the day a few merchants allowed me to put APO/FPO as "State" and I can't remember what I put for Zip and that was kind of a backdoor way of ordering.

I suppose I could just b.s my way making sure that the important info is right and hope for the best. But i'd hate to go through the hassle and have my transaction turned down because VISA couldn't confirm my proper account info.

Anyone else? Or am I just delusioned?

Blade

Moving to International Forum.

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David, Moderator of the Other Forum
I laughed, I cried, my life was changed: The Other Forum
My DVDs and HT Email: [email protected]

i6s1

I've ordered about 20 DVDs and lots of others stuff from most of the major US online stores. I've shopped at Amazon, Buy(US), Reel, DVDexpress, hifi, bn, dvdwave, egghead, and bid. I've used 3 Canadian CCs and never had a problem using a US billing address if they don't take Canadian info. Something that I heard will work is emailing them with your address, but I've never had to do that.

As for getting a CC from a US bank, I think you need to be a resident of the US. I'm opening an online bank account from sfnb.com, and they won't let me get a CC. The main reason I'm opening this account is to get a US bank number to open a paypal account.