Would it be useful to list Business Cards we have and what our experience has been as far as reporting the lines on our personal credit reports?

I will start:

1. Citi Business Platinum w/ TY, Opened: May 2007, not reported on personal.
2. Citi Business PremierPass w/TY, Opened: May 2007, not reported on personal.

Spoke to CSR, was assured that neither card will report unless seriously delinquent (not specified what that means, but I am guessing 90 days late). Each has had 2 statement cycles, and NO reporting on personal credit files.

Citi Professional is really a personal card. When trying to link it from a citicards.com Business Account, I could not. However, it succeeded when linking from the Personal account.

FYI: FNB Omaha Bus requires bus checking account.

MagicOasisSucks:
cardjuggler:
rigor:

Great info. Thanks for sharing it!

Of the cards I have been approved for (listed in the quick summary section), the only one that shows up on the personal report is the Citi Professional.

cityjanefm said:Any data points on AMEX Biz cards? They have a sweet Delta Gold Biz offer going on right now, but I already have the Delta Plat personal. Since the dreaded AMEX FR is always a concern, I love to know how AMEX views new Biz credit card for current customers with several current AMEX cards.

I have 2 personal AMEX cards, just applied for a business AMEX card 2 weeks ago and was instantly approved. No FR whatsoever but when I received the card, it didn't say anything about my credit limit. It just said "no preset limit" and my spending will be approved on many factors. I remember that my Citi (personal) world mastercard has similar wordings but at least it has a baseline credit limit to start with.

This is my first AMEX biz card and I wonder what it really means?

markkundinger said:Traditional AMEX charge cards (green gold platinum) truly don't have credit limits. You're required to pay off the balance each month.

Others' AOR experience seems to indicates that AMEX gives business credit out like candy.

The one I applied is Business Gold Reward card. It really seems like a charge card. Thanks for the headsup.

Mikawl said:Anyone care to comment on this strategy proposed? I was thinking the same thing... would allow you to shift your debt from business to personal and bounce back and forth...

ChumChurum said:lrothkcsa said:I wish there was a way to vote for what becomes a sticky, rather than "just" green. Mike, this is tremendously helpful and a great resource. Had it not been for your commentary, I'd have missed out on at least 20k from my wife-o-rama (just got approved for BofA).

I can share that sentiment - it was not obvious in the beginning why one should apply for business credit. The info is scattered all over the place.

Like Mike said, EVEN if some issuers might have rules, like min 2 years in biz, it does not hurt to apply.

Has anyone tried the following strategy:

1. AOR phase 1: bus-app-o-rama: apply, receive, transfer,
2. AOR phase 2: bump-o-rama: get rid of the EQ / TU inqs,
3. AOR phase 3: personal-app-o-rama.

I know you can easily combine 1 and 2, but imagine how many more business APPs you can apply for IF the personal APPS are not contributing inquiries.In theory yes, that is possible. You can do the AOR for business and the personal part you know you can hide to business (such as chase, but you will have to find out which other cards allow personal to business consolidation first), then do a bump o rama to get the inquiries off, then apply for a personal AOR.

The down side is time. It will take you a full 3 months to bump off the inquiries in between (edit:unless you rock 4 credit reporting services via lhendricks92's lightning fast bumbage methodology ); and honestly I will almost guarantee you that chase (and others) will not give you more personal cards after you have just been approved for personal and then moved the CL to business side (they will have internal records of this, and will not have to rely on the credit report to see it; not to mention thier system of max number of cards granted in a certain time frame will come into play). Also, your personal credit report will show the new personal accounts being opened and then closed/with small credit lines remaining, which may spooke some companies to turn you down. It may be better for companies to just see the inquiries as opposed to the opened (but now either closed/smaller accounts), since I don't think they can tell if the inquiries are just from a CLI request (or other reason) or for a new card. Finally, another down side is that you will actually need to do two bump o rama's (one before the personal aor, and one after the personal aor). With this in mind, you AOR time requirement has just doubled in size and unless you are really getting after a massive AOR, this added time is going to shrink your hourly profitablity to a small enough level you may just be better off spending your time doing something else.

Another data point is that it appears the effect of inquiries are less important for some people than others. For example, about 16 of my 34 personal applications were denied becuase of excessive inquiries. For my mom-o-rama, only 4 of her 31 applications were denied for excessive inquiries. I have also seen these differences elseware on the forums. It appears that they care less about inquiries for those with a longer, more extensive history.

This strategy is in theory possible, but it adds to the complication and time required of the already growingly intricate AOR. It would be great to get some test case data from others, I just don't want to be that test case

(Mikawl, I PM'ed most of this response to you also in response)

I'm not sure if the 1-2 punch of business then personal AOR is doomed to failure. But I'm not sure if it's worth the cost/benefit.

On the upside, assuming you get the Business apps bumped off, the only deleterious effect on your credit score will be the Experian inquiries as the accounts themselves won't actually show up. If you're able to use the business accounts to reduce utilization (if that's a problem) then it might actually boost your score a little.

On the downside, well... I'm not sure how much you really gain from this. It's more complicated than applying all at once. Any lender should know what your total exposure is with them between business and personal lines (and if they don't know, then having a simultaneous personal and biz app will have just as good a success). It also drags out the time you're doing apps instead of just doing it in one long day.

... if you're using the alternate technique of a "rolling" AOR with lower utilization and a smaller continuous stream of apps, then this method might be more appropriate, you could try to stagger your business and personal apps.

In conclusion, I am a simple man with a simple mind, and I'd say to just go for doing them all at once. But I don't see anything wrong with doing the 1-2 method (except for Experian)

krk77 said:I have a simple question. I dont have any business income and I dont even sell anything on eBay. is it ok if I apply for Business cards? if yes then what should I show as my business income?Check out the first post in this thread again (about 2/3 of the way down). However, I will also provide the spoon

MikeR397 said:Also, just put $0 revenue and 0 years in business if this is the truth (There is no problem with getting credit for a start up company). I have done this with applications before and received 9 of 9 business credit card approvals with business credit lines totaling over 120k. They care more about your personal score/report than your business revenue. GO FOR IT!

Mike, Thanks for your response. what if I have no intention of starting the business in the first place? Is it legal to have Business cards without any business now as well as in the future?
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krk77 said:

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I have a simple question. I dont have any business income and I dont even sell anything on eBay. is it ok if I apply for Business cards? if yes then what should I show as my business income?

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Check out the first post in this thread again (about 2/3 of the way down). However, I will also provide the spoon

MikeR397 said:

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Also, just put $0 revenue and 0 years in business if this is the truth (There is no problem with getting credit for a start up company). I have done this with applications before and received 9 of 9 business credit card approvals with business credit lines totaling over 120k. They care more about your personal score/report than your business revenue. GO FOR IT!

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