No Credit

Did you hear about the new law that Obama just signed? It establishes all sorts of rules for credit card companies. So I suppose it will be harder to get credit in America. In the past, especially before the bubble burst, our mail box probably contained one or two credit card offers every day. If you had a pulse, you could get a credit card.

From what I hear, people with good credit scores can still get new credit cards in America. The credit score does not carry over to Japan. We have applied for a VISA card from two different banks and both have turned us down, without explanation.

Japan never had much of a credit card culture; it's almost always the case that you have to pay with cash except for larger ticket items, transportation, and hotels. Where credit cards are accepted we can usually, but not always, use our old credit cards we have from USA domiciled credit card companies. But we get charged 3% for each transaction and have to also pay in dollars, so the credit card company also makes money off of us when they convert from Yen to Dollars.

Frankly, I am offended when getting turned down for credit. This probably qualifies me for being an arrogant, ugly American. The truth us, I am a penny pinching person and simply want to avoid the fees.

My question: Is it so hard for the Japanese credit card companies to consider the credit score from another country? Gosh, it might take 10 seconds to look at and analyze the number, and there is no obligation to offer credit to anyone. Answer: Yes.