topic Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships in Business Credit

Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

MyLoFICO — Sat, 06 Feb 2016 20:58:38 GMT

I'm gardening so I want to get some info on my options for business credit cards. I have only applied for 2 and that was back in January. I applied for the Chase Ink and got declined for one reason according to the letter they sent. A collection on my credit. I can only assume its the one bad debt I have. I also applied for the C1 Spark Classic and got approved with a $500 limit. My personal C1 cards are ~$2k each. My personal credit has quite a few inquiries (10-15 depending on agency and 4 are in the last 6 months). I have an old charge off as stated above that I am dealing with and will resolve soon or let it drop off on 1-2017. I also have quite a few late house payments from back in 2009-2012 from when my ex handled our finances. She was using the house payment to do bad stuff and hiding the missed payments from me, hence the "ex" part. I have a goodwill letter into the mortgage company and they just confirmed receipt of it yesterday but they have not made a decision yet.

This leads me to my question. I need card(s) on my credit to build my business score so I can get better terms from my distributors. I am on terms with 2 of them but they do not appear to be on my credit, personal or business. I have to remain a SP because of the nature of my business. I have the spark card but it has a $500 limit. My normal business transaction is $1500-$12k so as you can imagine, the Spark Classic is of no use to me for my business. I just got it in January and I will garden it for sure, but I need other options. My CS's are in my siggy but I looked at C1's credit tracker on my personal C1 accounts and it says 579 for TU. That is an 80 pt spread from CK. At this point I am not sure what to believe. I need guidance on what I should do. My tax refund will be in soon and I will be paying off all my cards except 10% of one of my QS1's in an attempt to maximize my UTI. All the score simulators (TU, EXP, and C1 CT) say I should be about 670-690) after that. At that point I would like to app for 1 business card that I have the best chance with to get a decent line of credit. I will need to start my gardening over but I just started yesterday so I want to make my one app count. Any advice is appreciated. I did get an e-mail from AMEX offering their gold business card but those are never a guarantee and so I have not messed with it.

My Experian Business score is 46.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

myjourney — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 02:31:13 GMT

Geez long post ....Lol

Looking at your scores my first question is are those Fico in sig?

If they are work on your CR's because any cards you get will be based off of your personal CR's and as it stands now they're a little low for Chase/Amex and top Cap1 business cards

The good news is the Spark card you have is reporting to both business and personal so that's a plus

As far as high limits again if CR's are in order and income then it's possible but suffer in any of the 2 well you get the idea

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

lindsaydruart — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 05:34:45 GMT

App for the following with no PG (for now):

BJs World for Business

Sam's Mastercard

I believe the minimum limits are $1000. I don't think you have the scores to support solid PGs right now but you need to garden that Spark. I believe you can get CLI at 3 months with it. Show Cap 1 love and they will love you back.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

MyLoFICO — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 08:13:46 GMT

@myjourney wrote:
Geez long post ....Lol
Looking at your scores my first question is are those Fico in sig?
If they are work on your CR's because any cards you get will be based off of your personal CR's and as it stands now they're a little low for Chase/Amex and top Cap1 business cards
The good news is the Spark card you have is reporting to both business and personal so that's a plus

As far as high limits again if CR's are in order and income then it's possible but suffer in any of the 2 well you get the idea

Thanks, and sorry for the wall of text. I had a customer show up unannounced and had to post so it wouldn't get lost and then get off the computer. The Experian is a FICO 8 from their site. The others are CK which I am finding to not be very reliable. I have the credit tracker on one of my C1 QS1 cards and it shows 579 which I confess is about as welcome as a kick in the jewels. But, I would rather see reality.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

ABC123TLC — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 08:17:03 GMT

First thing... SOLE PROP is harder to get credit for

I recommend becoming a LLC (easy to manage like a partnership)

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

MyLoFICO — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 08:29:02 GMT

@tlclindac wrote:
First thing... SOLE PROP is harder to get credit for

I recommend becoming a LLC (easy to manage like a partnership)

I agree. My business requires licensing from the ATF, interaction with the FBI, and my local Police have to be made aware of any changes as well. Changing is going to be a real hassle until it comes time to renew my licenses/permits through them. The next renewal is 2017 at which point I will be converting to an LLC. I have an attorney who has already drawn up the papers to do so. I cannot operate with any laps in my license whatsoever. During the name and business type change I have to stop operating completely. If I do not, I can be prosecuted and jailed, a prospect that is not overly appealing to me. In retrospect I should have done it when I started in 2011 but I was new to this field and did not notice my lapse in judgement or how hard it would be to change. But, I agree, and the change will happen. I am also weighing my options of waiting till then. I just hate to lose all this time when I could be building my score.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

MyLoFICO — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 08:36:52 GMT

@lindsaydruart wrote:
App for the following with no PG (for now):

BJs World for Business
Sam's Mastercard

I believe the minimum limits are $1000. I don't think you have the scores to support solid PGs right now but you need to garden that Spark. I believe you can get CLI at 3 months with it. Show Cap 1 love and they will love you back.

Thank you. I will check those out. I have a Sams near me but I think you might be right, I think my Spark is my only choice right now. I will try for a CLI on it around April. I have 2 QS1 cards, 1 old and 1 new and they have never been late. I was kind of surprised at the low CL on the Spark to be honest. The 2 QS are 4K between the 2 and I could work with that, I just wanted to get it to report to my business credit as well.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

Anonymous — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:17:23 GMT

@tlclindac wrote:
First thing... SOLE PROP is harder to get credit for

I recommend becoming a LLC (easy to manage like a partnership)

What are you basing this statement on. I'm a SP and have had no problem getting business cards from Amex, Chase and Citi.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

mattmyFIC0 — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 14:49:20 GMT

@lindsaydruart wrote:
App for the following with no PG (for now):

BJs World for Business
Sam's Mastercard

I believe the minimum limits are $1000. I don't think you have the scores to support solid PGs right now but you need to garden that Spark. I believe you can get CLI at 3 months with it. Show Cap 1 love and they will love you back.

I just tried applying for that and since I told the rep on the phone I was a Sole Prop she couldn't continue the app without me telling her all my personal info including social security so that it would be PG.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

MyLoFICO — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 16:35:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@tlclindac wrote:
First thing... SOLE PROP is harder to get credit for

I recommend becoming a LLC (easy to manage like a partnership)

What are you basing this statement on. I'm a SP and have had no problem getting business cards from Amex, Chase and Citi.

I am almost certain tlclindac meant that with my CS I would be facing more of a challenge as a SP rather than the others since the LLC and INC do not rely on my PG to obtain.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

lindsaydruart — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 17:33:36 GMT

My apologies. I forgot about the Sole Prop. You have to PG everything as a sole prop. Single Member LLC would really be the way to go if you can work past your hassle.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 01:19:12 GMT

Unless the LLC has an established business history and file, it won't matter. Any credit granted will still be based on the individual's profile.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 08:19:52 GMT

No such animal!!! Business credit cards are listed under your EIN and

your personal credit cards are listed under your SS#.

Biz credit card issuers ofteten request (not required) that you personally

back (PG) the business credit card application.

SP use their SS# Biz people use their EIN on biz credit application

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 17:26:42 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No such animal!!! Business credit cards are listed under your EIN and
your personal credit cards are listed under your SS#.

Biz credit card issuers ofteten request (not required) that you personally
back (PG) the business credit card application.

SP use their SS# Biz people use their EIN on biz credit application

Incorrect.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

MyLoFICO — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 17:55:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
No such animal!!! Business credit cards are listed under your EIN and
your personal credit cards are listed under your SS#.

Biz credit card issuers ofteten request (not required) that you personally
back (PG) the business credit card application.

SP use their SS# Biz people use their EIN on biz credit application

I would definitely take a knee and ask questions before you go against the grain here. These folks (myself not included) know their stuff. I came in here with a lot of misinformation too. Put your pride and assumptions aside and you could glean a wealth of knowledge from these folks.

Re: Business Cards for Sole Proprietorships

Imperfectfuture — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 22:24:52 GMT

@tlclindac wrote:
First thing... SOLE PROP is harder to get credit for

I recommend becoming a LLC (easy to manage like a partnership)

Though old, NOT TRUE. That is internet propaganda, hoping you pay for services that improve paydex. Corporate cards are out of reach for sole p's, but I do not want those.