Business credit card without business revenue?

[Anonymous]

I have an established LLC that I setup to start some independent consulting.  I don't actually have clients or revenue yet (and I'm pretty busy with my day job... so I haven't really been working too hard on it).

Just recieved a Chase Ink Preferred Business invitation.  Wondering if it's worth applying for the account.

For background, I have excellent personal credit (all scores 825+, very low utilization, about $200k in available revolving credit) income approx $200k, and chase "seems to like me" (aka recently instant approval for $30k SL on CSR and even got an autoCLI on my Chase Marriott)

Questions: 

Since I don't actually have any business revenue (at this point)... should I say zero or put down an anticipated revenue for this year?  I could anticipate $10,000 to $25,000 revenue this year if I pursue it.  

Will this be a hard pull on my personal credit reports?  All are locked down, so if they do try a HP it will simply fail.

I have a DUNS number (the free one, not the paid service) and have access to that account.  It all shows basically nothing... no good no bad.

The offer is for 80k UR after $5000 in purchases in the first 3 months.  How strict are they about those being for bona fina business expenses?  I travel very frequently for my current employer and file my own expense reports.  I could easily shift my business travel to this card for a month or two and make that threshold.  Will I get busted for this somehow?

Sorry for just asking these questions rather than going through the other threads.  I spent a little time over there, but the "no revenue" thing seems a little unusual.  Any input appreciated.

-ODT

[ToughFistFight]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I have an established LLC that I setup to start some independent consulting.  I don't actually have clients or revenue yet (and I'm pretty busy with my day job... so I haven't really been working too hard on it).

Just recieved a Chase Ink Preferred Business invitation.  Wondering if it's worth applying for the account.

For background, I have excellent personal credit (all scores 825+, very low utilization, about $200k in available revolving credit) income approx $200k, and chase "seems to like me" (aka recently instant approval for $30k SL on CSR and even got an autoCLI on my Chase Marriott)

Questions: 

Since I don't actually have any business revenue (at this point)... should I say zero or put down an anticipated revenue for this year?  I could anticipate $10,000 to $25,000 revenue this year if I pursue it.  Put down anticipated.  I am of the faith, if you dont have a business, dont apply for a business card.  Your faith may vary.

Will this be a hard pull on my personal credit reports?  All are locked down, so if they do try a HP it will simply fail.  UW will fail your app and ask you to unlock.  They might ask you to unlock a specific report, Im not sure about that.  They do like to do a double pull.  There is a very thin line in this forum for talking about apping with locked reports.  Please be cautious. 

I have a DUNS number (the free one, not the paid service) and have access to that account.  It all shows basically nothing... no good no bad. 

The offer is for 80k UR after $5000 in purchases in the first 3 months.  How strict are they about those being for bona fina business expenses?  I travel very frequently for my current employer and file my own expense reports.  I could easily shift my business travel to this card for a month or two and make that threshold.  Will I get busted for this somehow?    No, however, keeping your personal for work travel seperate in your books is necessary.  I know my accountant does NOT like it when I mix the cards for personal and business use.  I do try my best not to.  She said she is going to torture me with bizarre household cleaning products if I do it again.  Your accountant may vary.

Im hoping other chime in.  Weve got some super smartypants here.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!  

---

[Anonymous]

Do you have any Amex cards?
If you have one for at least many months I would expect likely no hard pull.

[Anonymous]

So let's get this out of the way;

If you have an LLC, you have a business. No need to debate that, or the faith of it. 

1. If you are going to pursue business (jobs), and have a good idea of what those engagements will bill, I'd report expected revenue. They may ask for previous year revenues and you'd have to tell then 0, but they'll figure that out when they see when it was established  

2. Yes, it will be a hard pull, and probably on two CRA's. They double pulled me back in the fall when I app'd for the Ink. 

You will have to unlock them before. Also, as another poster said, it's a thin line talking about app'ing with frozen reports. BUT, I think its if the discussion goes in a deceptive direction. Nothing about your question was deceptive. I think you genuinely wanted to know. 

3. DUNS is worthless for this activity.

Chase will base their decision on your personal profile. My only concern is if you have a lot of credit with Chase, they may pull from your personal to feed the SL on the new card - should you be approved. 

4. I hope I am not crossing any lines here, but I think you are fine to use the card for the travel expenses. On the charge front, Chase wouldn't know the difference. It's a charge for travel, business people travel, and when the bill came you paid it. Why would they care? However, it could create some paperwork for your LLC (and your accountant) depending on how you keep your LLC's books.

BUT that is all I am going to say. I don't want to kick the hornet's nest. 

[Anonymous]

Question has already been well answered but somehow some of my answer got cut off. I had a green check mark offer from chase and I still got a pull from each cra so expect to get a minimum of one one hard pull even for Chase small business.

[Anonymous]

---

@ToughFistFight wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I have an established LLC that I setup to start some independent consulting.  I don't actually have clients or revenue yet (and I'm pretty busy with my day job... so I haven't really been working too hard on it).

Just recieved a Chase Ink Preferred Business invitation.  Wondering if it's worth applying for the account.

For background, I have excellent personal credit (all scores 825+, very low utilization, about $200k in available revolving credit) income approx $200k, and chase "seems to like me" (aka recently instant approval for $30k SL on CSR and even got an autoCLI on my Chase Marriott)

Questions: 

Will this be a hard pull on my personal credit reports?  All are locked down, so if they do try a HP it will simply fail.  UW will fail your app and ask you to unlock.  They might ask you to unlock a specific report, Im not sure about that.  They do like to do a double pull.  There is a very thin line in this forum for talking about apping with locked reports.  Please be cautious. 

---

 You are correct that the OP will have to unlock the report(s) before Chase will process the application.  I want to clarify our guidelines regarding discussing freezing credit reports.  It is perfectly fine to talk about freezing all 3 of the reports and hoping for an approval (unlikely and certainly not in this case).  What you can not discuss is freezing a report or 2 to force a creditor to pull one of your choosing.  It doesn’t matter whether you want to do that because of different information on the reports or you are trying to limit the number of inquiries on a specific report.  Avoid that type of tooic and there won’t be any issues.

---

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the feedback on this.  I'm not sure if I'll apply or not... I certainly don't *need* the credit and could easily use one of my personal cards to keep my LLC expenses seperated from my personal.  The 80k UR is appealing, but not overwhelming.

Regarding my frozen credit reports... I keep all of my reports frozen by default (including ChexSystems for banking).  If I were going to apply for credit where I expected a hardpull, I would unfreeze it for obvious reasons.  The reason I mentioned it here was because I didn't know if a business application would HP my personal CRs (and I got that answered = yes).

Thanks again!

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Do you have any Amex cards?
If you have one for at least many months I would expect likely no hard pull.

---

I do have an Amex... Delta Reserve.  Open for ~8 years with a $50k SL.  No derogs (on the Amex or anywhere).

Are you suggesting I pursue an Amex Business card?  (to avoid a HP?)

[ToughFistFight]

Yes. Amex is a sp. 👍👍👍

[Anonymous]

I just got approved on Chase business putting down 2k of revenue. I wouldn't put down high expected revenues if you have no current revenue. From what I have read from others the ones they ask for proof is when you put high business revenue down.