Living In Spain, Getting A Uk Credit Card

[Jennykenny]

A friend who has lived in Spain for 40+ years, Spanish residence, Spanish business, owns two houses, comes back to the UK a couple of times a year to visit family can't get a Tesco or John Lewis credit card as she has no credit history in the UK.
Her and her husband spend a large amount of money travelling every year and should be able to earn Airmiles etc but don't appear to qualify for anything.
Is there a way round this?

[ubasses]

I cannot think of any, to apply for UK credit Card you need a UK address, and appear on the voters roll. Friends in Cyprus have the same problem even though they have kept UK Bank account.
Had your fiends kept any cards they had before leaving UK, they would have been able to keep them and just change their address.
I have found this Iberia Credit card which gives Avios which may interest them.
http://help.iberia.com/frequently_asked_question/what-are-the-iberia-sendo-and-iberia-max-cards/

[Buenchico]

I've got a Scottish friend in Italy (but with a flat in the UK) with a very similar problem, which she asked me to look into for her. Unfortunately, as far as I could see, there's no way around it..

The two main areas of difficulty seem to be
(a) UK anti-money laundering legislation (which imposes restrictions upon who lenders can offer accounts to) ; and
(b) the natural reluctance of banks to lend money to people when they know that they'd have great difficulties pursuing through the courts if they were to default on their loans.

As Ubasses effectively indicates, BA and Iberia are actually part of the same company (IAG, along with Aer Lingus), so Iberia's card might be worth looking into.
(Iberia also sells Avios through Groupon: https://www.groupon.es/deals/ga-avios-group-espana )

[jno]

is it specifically Tescos and John Lewis they're looking for or just cards that give them airmiles? If it's the second, are there no Spanish cards that would help?

[CrapAtCryptics]

Santander - they are Spanish arent they

[Jennykenny]

(Interesting although the system accepted 'best answer' about 10 minutes also, it didn't accept my response thanking everyone and commenting on the different answers. Not sure why this would happen?

[EDDIE51]

I was going to say just apply for a Spanish card, it would be valid in the UK.