Apply for new credit card when living abroad

KJSmith

GingerBob wrote: »

Again, so what? Unless you're attempting to deliberately obtain money by fraudulent means I don't see what the problem is. At best (or is that worst) you're lying to the CC company. How many prosecutions have there been of people miss-stating residence? None? Probably because there's nothing illegal in it. It is very unlikely that they'd get wind of your residential arrangements. And there are good reasons for maintaining a UK base - finance being one of them.

This is exactly what you'd be doing though - deliberately lying about your residence status in order to obtain the banks money.

I agree that they're unlikely to find out your true residence status and a subsequent prosecution is even more unlikely. However, personally I wouldn't be willing to risk making any fraudulent applications. I guess some people are happy to take the risk...

chattychappy

GingerBob wrote: »

Probably more like a breach of T&Cs. The OP would not be trying to gain a pecuniary advantage.

Much of the old fraud laws were rewritten and consolidated into the Fraud Act 2006. The OP could be on the hook for fraud by false representation (section 2). It is sufficient merely to "expose another to a risk of loss" rather than have to obtain a pecuniary advantage. It comes down to how the application process is designed, but clearly if there is wording to the effect that you must be UK resident to apply, then such a misrepresentation could be made by proceding further. The misrepresentation can be implied - so if you tick a box to say you have read and understood the T+Cs which in turn state that the card is only available to UK residents, again you could be on the hook.

All a bit hypothetical really, I doubt whether there are many prosecutions for the sort of situation being discussed here.