an exception. if you are in canada, you can apply for Amex or MC from CanadaTrust, which have us$ credit card seivice if you have us$ account, but the thing is: normally canadian banks will not provide us$ personal chequing services (as far as i know), so when you make the payment, u need somehow pay from your us$ account other than personal cheques if us$ personal cheques are unvailable in your bank.