I am into my second month of my first Business AOR. Has any one gotten any automatic credit line increase without asking in their business AOR in the first couple of months.

mak16 said:.....I am disappointed I was late on the payment....

Call them, be nice, and see what they can do. I've actually had several "oh shiz!" moments with 1-day-late payments and have never had a problem getting the issuer to reverse late fees and restore promo rates.

I haven't had ANY luck with business CLIs except from Day One when Nat City doubled my $10K CL to $20K when dangling a BT and Cap One pushed me from $20K to $22.5K. Other than that... only CLRs, again at day one. Oh, I forgot AMEX recently denied my CLI on my $99K biz card No FR thankfully, but I also pointed out to them that I already had an FR in Sept 07. I'm hesitant to ask Chase biz ($81K CL), though CITI biz ($36K CL) and BofA biz ($28.5K combined CL) might be good prospects. Again, I'm going to try the CLR route since I have a few new cards with Chase and Citi (hopefully) on the way.

LaJollaInvestor said:
I am also interested in Biz card auto CLI experiences. The cards I'm most curious about are Advanta and AMEX but would also appreciate info on Home Depot and Lowes commercial cards.

Can't help much with the requested cards but can offer the following:

Chase Business: auto CLI from 25k to 32k in December. This was half way through my promo 12 month BT at 85% util, Chase likes me since my daily driver has been with them since 1995 (I also have a mortgage with them).

Citi business: no CLI after filling out the online form (they pulled my personal Equifax). I had wrapped up my personal AOR balances and was only showing 5% util on my report at the time (I did have 80% utilization on a Chase Business and Bank Atlantic business at the time -- there is no indication that citi pulled a business report for me, the letter said I have "as much credit (18k) as their policy allows". FWIW I consolidated 11k from a personal card to this card one week later.

Advanta: requested CLI by phone after activating card (they gave me a crappy 2.5k limit). No dice (they did not pull personal, they may have pulled equi business report, advanta is the only account I have showing there.

YMMV

great thread.

questions:

1) if i create an s corp or llc with TIN, and the entity essentially exists only to build credit and play bt games, will i have to file a tax return for that entity every year?

2) on the other hand, if i go with a sole prop structure, (no TIN) will that company ever establish it's own credit report, D&B file, paydex, etc?

i'm really getting stuck trying to figure out which structure is better, all things considered. thanks -

Nummerkins said:
This month I received a round of Auto-CLIs:

Card/Balance/Original Limit/New limit/Age

CitiBusiness TY/29,160/32,200/37,200/10 months
Chase Business/18,870/21,000/26,000/6 months
Bank Atlantic Biz/19,060/21,000/23,100/6 months

Edit: I always pay more than the minimum, usually $25 or so. I found this leads to CLIs at about the 6 month mark, as minimum payments affect your internal customer profile negatively.

I tested this once before, applying for 2 identical Citi cards with identical limits. I paid on the same date to each, paying the minimum on one and a few dollars more on the other. The one I paid more on got an auto-CLI in 6 months and the other did not.

good data point, would you also put "cusmoter since" if possible? Most likely this factor also affects someone's status/standing with the lender and, therefore, Auto-CLI-ness.Tnx

clyde_frog said:if i create an s corp or llc with TIN, and the entity essentially exists only to build credit and play bt games, will i have to file a tax return for that entity every year?There's no federal requirement to file if there's no income. States differ. If the money goes into HYS under your name, you get the 1099.

However, that money technically belongs to the entity. If you put the money in its account, it will make money and file. If you put the money in your account, you file. The IRS could disallow your entity's no-interest loan to you, essentially making the interest belong to the entity. For an s-corp with one owner, that would mean a schedule K-1, and the federal tax effect is like a 1099, so they wouldn't bother you.

I don't know about llc. My accountant (former IRS auditor) says if they wanted to get nasty over a few thousand bucks interest on money borrowed in a biz name in a sole prop, they could call it self-employment income, and you'd be looking at 15.3% on a schedule SE, PLUS your marginal rate.

Does anyone want to chime in on this issue?

TyroneSchulace said:clyde_frog said:if i create an s corp or llc with TIN, and the entity essentially exists only to build credit and play bt games, will i have to file a tax return for that entity every year?There's no federal requirement to file if there's no income. States differ. If the money goes into HYS under your name, you get the 1099.

However, that money technically belongs to the entity. If you put the money in its account, it will make money and file. If you put the money in your account, you file. The IRS could disallow your entity's no-interest loan to you, essentially making the interest belong to the entity. For an s-corp with one owner, that would mean a schedule K-1, and the federal tax effect is like a 1099, so they wouldn't bother you.

I don't know about llc. My accountant (former IRS auditor) says if they wanted to get nasty over a few thousand bucks interest on money borrowed in a biz name in a sole prop, they could call it self-employment income, and you'd be looking at 15.3% on a schedule SE, PLUS your marginal rate.

Does anyone want to chime in on this issue?

great info - thanks. based on this, i can't see any real downside to going the s corp route with TIN.

lhendricks92 said:If your S-corp has a credit card with Chase, but you deposit Chase's BT money in your personal account, is that really an implied loan between your company and you? Money never flowed through your company's deposit accounts, but I can see it either way.

I contend the IRS wouldn't careThey wouldn't for an s-corp. It just flows through without self-employment. The auditors have an unwritten quota for revenue from adjustments. They won't waste time moving money from one line to another unless it adds to their "value" as an employee. This is analogous to forgetting to file the 179 deduction form for a new computer. It doesn't change your bottom line, so who cares?

But imagine what shareholders would think if the president of GiantXYZ,inc. used his corporate card to BT money to his personal accounts with no agreement to pay it back. Then he tells them it was just an interest-free loan! Whenever I've gotten major financing for my corp, the bank has always required a corporate resolution to borrow. Compass even required one to open a checking account, but they're anal.

The danger I see is the loss of status as a corp for liability protection. Without a yearly shareholders' meeting and resolutions for actions, and with corp instruments being used for personal business, I can imagine a good attorney maintaining that the corp doesn't function as one, and therefor no protection is afforded.

It would be a PITA to do resolutions and promissory notes for every card, but I still want protection, so I did something. At the last shareholders' meeting, me, myself, and I voted to pass a catch-all resolution to be able to scratch where it itches. The president may now apply for, obtain, and use revolving credit and interest-bearing accounts for the benefit of the shareholders. I hope I never get to find out if this works.

TyroneSchulace said:clyde_frog said:if i create an s corp or llc with TIN, and the entity essentially exists only to build credit and play bt games, will i have to file a tax return for that entity every year?There's no federal requirement to file if there's no income. States differ. If the money goes into HYS under your name, you get the 1099.

However, that money technically belongs to the entity. If you put the money in its account, it will make money and file. If you put the money in your account, you file. The IRS could disallow your entity's no-interest loan to you, essentially making the interest belong to the entity. For an s-corp with one owner, that would mean a schedule K-1, and the federal tax effect is like a 1099, so they wouldn't bother you.

I don't know about llc. My accountant (former IRS auditor) says if they wanted to get nasty over a few thousand bucks interest on money borrowed in a biz name in a sole prop, they could call it self-employment income, and you'd be looking at 15.3% on a schedule SE, PLUS your marginal rate.

Does anyone want to chime in on this issue?

It seems like most of the folks in this thread would rather declare the interest as personal income, but has anyone considered the benefits of declaring it as self-employment income?

For those of us that don't actually own any other businesses, declaring AOR income as self-employment would allow us to open solo-401ks. With a solo 401(k) the business can contribute a maximum of 100% of its profits up to $15,500 in deferred compensation and you can contribute a maximum of 25% of your current "compensation". Moreover, I've read that unlike other retirement accounts solo 401(k)s can be self-directed with checkbook control without setting up a separate LLC and without paying UBI.

That being said, does anyone know how to properly declare income reported on a 1099-INT under a personal SSN as self-employment income under schedule SE? I'd rather not open separate business CD/savings accounts under a separate business EIN because business account offerings aren't always as good. Provided that personal funds are not commingled with AOR funds, what would be the correct way to file?