Important background information:
I am a Canadian citizen. I live in Canada and work in the US. Each day I cross the border to get to my job in the US, then cross the border again to go back home. I don't live in the US and have no plans to.
I hate paying bank fees.
I have a TD Canada Trust bank account (CAD) and a TD Bank (US) bank account (USD). TD's cross border services make it easy enough to move money from one account to the other. Although the fees to transfer money are waived/refunded, there is still some money going to TD through the retail exchange rates. I don't like it, but I accept it.
My problem comes with credit cards. Since I don't have a US residential address, I'm not able to sign up for a US based credit card. I was specifically looking at a super basic card with no annual fee.
I could get a Canadian based USD credit card ($40 annual fee), but I would need to pay the balance from my TD Canada Trust bank account. So basically my money would go: TD Bank (USD) --> TD Canada Trust (CAD) --> Pay Credit Card (USD). I have no interest in paying TD for currency exchange twice just because I don't have a US address.
I can see a few options:
1. I could open a TD Canada Trust US dollar account, then I would avoid the currency exchange. But the account has a $1.25 fee for each transaction, so I'm still paying stupid stupid fees.
2. Just give up on getting a USD credit card and just use my bank card whenever I'm buying something in the US.
3. Figure out some sort of way to get a US based credit card. ???
Really I want to know if you have any suggestions for how I could make #3 work, OR if there is some other better option that I haven't thought of.