Access the US banking and credit system.

We set up founders who live outside the US with a US company, bank accounts and business cards. Twelve months, done from where you live.

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Sticking points for founders abroad

You run your company from outside the US. You may already own a US LLC and bank with a fintech like Mercury.

  • From abroad, you can’t apply for your company’s tax number online.

    The IRS’s online form needs a US Social Security number or an ITIN, so without one your company’s EIN has to be requested by phone, fax or mail. A fax can come back within a week or so. By mail it takes weeks, sometimes months.

  • Big US banks want to see you at a branch.

    Traditional US banks generally ask a founder who lives abroad to open an account in person. Fintechs like Mercury and Relay open online, but an account there doesn’t lead to business cards from the big US issuers.

  • US business cards are approved on your personal US credit.

    Chase and American Express check your personal credit even for a business card, and you guarantee the card yourself. Each bank also has its own rules on how many new cards you can open, and how often.

The work, step by step

Each step needs the one before it, so we run them in this order.

  1. Your US company and its EIN, filed together

    We form your US company if needed and apply for its EIN. If you have a US tax reason for an ITIN, a Certified Acceptance Agent files that application at the same time, so you aren’t waiting twice. For an ITIN from abroad, the IRS asks you to allow 9 to 11 weeks.

  2. Bank accounts through bankers we work with

    These bankers have opened business accounts for our clients after a video verification, without a trip to open them. Opening is the bank’s decision. Later on, the bank can ask you to visit a branch, and it can close the account. Once your account is open, you fund it.

  3. Business cards, in a planned order

    We look at your US credit file, if you have one, and plan which cards you apply for, in what order and when, within each bank’s rules. You apply only once your account is funded, because the bank reviews an unfunded customer as a stranger. The bank decides each card on your personal credit, which you guarantee.

  4. Points booked as flights and hotels

    We move your points to airline and hotel partners, where they are usually worth the most, and book business and first class flights and hotels with them. After the first year, we can keep booking for you under a yearly arrangement.

How the twelve months run

The same spending, two outcomes

Your company already puts its ads, software and contractors on cards, and you spend that money either way. What it earns back depends on which cards it goes on.

On a card at home

Cards issued where you live usually earn less on the same spending.

On US business cards, with us

On average, the bookings we have made so far, all for one client, were worth about 5 to 8 percent of the spending that earned the points. We value each trip at its cash price, less the fees paid on the award.

Treat this as an example. It counts the points at the higher rate the cards pay on advertising. Other spending earns less, and whether your ad charges get that rate depends on where they are billed. What you get back also depends on the cards the banks approve, where and when you travel, and on card programs, which change.

The engagement

For twelve months we handle your US setup so that your company’s spending can go on US business cards, and we book your travel with the points it earns. The banks decide each account and card along the way.

The plan

Within 24 hours of enrolling you get a written plan, and nothing starts until you approve it.

Your part

You send us your documents, do a video verification with the bank, keep a large balance in the account at the level the bankers ask for, and apply for each card when we say.

The engagement in full

Clients today

Founders and their US companies

These founders run an operating business from outside the US and put much of its spending on cards. Their companies are agencies, software companies, online education businesses, consulting and other professional services.

The engagement makes sense from around $40,000 a month in card spending.

Where they’re from

  • United Kingdom
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
“Nowadays I don’t pay any flight, I don’t pay any hotel anymore.”
Matteo T., UGC Mastery Academy
“I never had to go into the US.”
Matis C., The Ecosystem

Both quotes are placeholders until the clients approve their use under the Ellis Sterling name.

We can’t take on businesses in gambling, adult content, crypto, cannabis, money services, payday lending or multi-level marketing, companies with no real operations, or anyone in a sanctioned country. Mainstream US banks and fintechs won’t open accounts for them, so we can’t do the work.

The firm

Ellis Sterling works with founders who live outside the United States and own, or are about to own, a US company. We work remotely, with bankers in the US and a Certified Acceptance Agent.

  • We describe your business to a bank exactly as it is.
  • We don’t promise credit scores. Nobody can say in advance what yours will be.
  • Your documents go through your client portal, which also shows what is done and what is waiting on you.
  • We are not tax advisers. Your own accountant confirms the tax side.
Teo Lupea, smiling, in a black blazer
Teo Lupea
About the firm

Insights

Guides to how US banking and credit work for founders abroad.

All insights

The first step is a video call.

We talk about your business, your spending and what we would do for you. If we’re not the right fit, we say so on the call.

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