Credit Cards

[llecs]

Amex warned me and then later cancelled me for using my personal Green for biz expenses.

[Duncanrr]

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llecs wrote:

Amex warned me and then later cancelled me for using my personal Green for biz expenses.

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This is what worries me.  I have to travel occasionally for work and our firm doesnt have business cards.  You put them on your own credit cards and get reimbursed.  I have no option of getting a business credit card with my firm.  So how am I to pay for these expenses? I can get advance sometimes if the travel will occur over a long period of time but mostly I have to pay out of pocket.

As the reimbursement is typically within 7-10 days after I submit the forms, a charge card seems to be an ideal fix.  So what should I do?

[trumpet-205]

It has more to do with recent credit reform than risk control.

Back then many people obtained business credit card more easily (since business credit card offers more reward), since bank didn't verify the existence of the business. Problem was that business credit card is not obligated to provide the same level of protection from personal credit card. Business credit card also did not verify your ability to pay.

So during economy downturn Congress came after banks for such practice, and subsquently banks now wants business charges on business credit card, not personal. AMEX being very firm on enforcing this.

[ryanbush]

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Duncanrr wrote:

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llecs wrote:

Amex warned me and then later cancelled me for using my personal Green for biz expenses.

---

This is what worries me.  I have to travel occasionally for work and our firm doesnt have business cards.  You put them on your own credit cards and get reimbursed.  I have no option of getting a business credit card with my firm.  So how am I to pay for these expenses? I can get advance sometimes if the travel will occur over a long period of time but mostly I have to pay out of pocket.

As the reimbursement is typically within 7-10 days after I submit the forms, a charge card seems to be an ideal fix.  So what should I do?

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you should be completly fine with your spending pattern, what AMEX doesn't like is when YOU own the business and use the card for purchasing product (read inventory)  if it's just spending related to travel that you're getting reimbursed for from a comany you work for you will be fine.

if i was guess i would bet that 75% of amex charge cards are used that way

[bostonte]

It's unusual for Amex to care. I suspect you spooked them with a "too much too soon" type of thing, and this was the easy answer to get you to charge more like how they expected.

My Platinum Charge was my go to card for business and personal expenses, and Amex didn't care. They even prepared a special supplement to my annual summary that attempted to automatically seperate out the easily identifiable business ones into their own summary (wholesale only businesses, etc.). Several times I was offered an AU card in my name as a second card to more easily identify expenses. I declined because what I was charging was easy to pick out and prove.

[ryanbush]

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bostonte wrote:

It's unusual for Amex to care. I suspect you spooked them with a "too much too soon" type of thing, and this was the easy answer to get you to charge more like how they expected.

My Platinum Charge was my go to card for business and personal expenses, and Amex didn't care. They even prepared a special supplement to my annual summary that attempted to automatically seperate out the easily identifiable business ones into their own summary (wholesale only businesses, etc.). Several times I was offered an AU card in my name as a second card to more easily identify expenses. I declined because what I was charging was easy to pick out and prove.

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Were you buying inventory? 

[bostonte]

Yes. And there would be no other way to explain the charges, it was rather obvious what they were for.

[llecs]

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Duncanrr wrote:

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llecs wrote:

Amex warned me and then later cancelled me for using my personal Green for biz expenses.

---

This is what worries me.  I have to travel occasionally for work and our firm doesnt have business cards.  You put them on your own credit cards and get reimbursed.  I have no option of getting a business credit card with my firm.  So how am I to pay for these expenses? I can get advance sometimes if the travel will occur over a long period of time but mostly I have to pay out of pocket.

As the reimbursement is typically within 7-10 days after I submit the forms, a charge card seems to be an ideal fix.  So what should I do?

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In my case, I own the biz and spent anywhere from $10k to $15k per month on the Green. My stated [personal] income and the income from the one and only FR was much less than that on a monthly basis. IMO, that was the red flag. I don't think Amex would have cared if I spent less like a thousand here or there. Many of my transactions were $5k+.

[DRNutra]

I bet it also has a lot to do with how the merchants themselves are coded in the Card Association's networks. Advertising Services and Professional services probably go down a lot better on business cards than personal - especially for amex. Whereas amex probably doesn't want to see you buying groceries on their business cards.

[shadow2k]

It's not what you buy, it's how much of it you buy.  If you make $60k/yr but spend $10k a month, that will throw up flags.  The expenses are for biz, but it isn't the biz that's obligated to pay that card...it's the guy making half of what he's spending.

Plenty of people apply for the exact same card from the same issuer at the same time.  The issuer typically approves one, denies the other.  Then you call to recon, and tell them it's to separate personal from biz.  Approved on both.  Happens every day.